Stalking Moonlight
by the machination
Summary: Goodnight Moon sequel, Uzumakisama and Dark Ki cowrite. In a single night, fears became truth. Nightmares became real. For Sora, surviving could be worse than death. For Riku, the hunt for answers has just begun. [noncon, slash]
1. Prologue: rude awakening

This fanfic is the direct crossover sequel to Uzumaki-sama's _Goodnight Moon_ and Dark Ki's _Turnabout_ arc. To fully understand this bizarre sequel, you'll have to read **both** Dark Ki and Uzumaki's fics. Links to the mentioned fanfiction can be found under their names in **the machination**'s profile (if you need help, e-mail one of them, or check the FAQ at the bottom of the profile).

Without further ado, here is _Stalking Moonlight_.

**Prologue – _Rude Awakening_**

****

_Moonlight bled through the night, thick and red, suffocating. It strangled the world, leaked through the feathers of the ragged black crow searching the dark for carrion. The crow's caw clenched at his heart, a sharp laugh of death. Its black eyes focused on him, intense and searching as if it _knew

_The clear sound of metal sung in the air, drawing his attention inside where someone stood at the counter, the blade of a kitchen knife gleaming in the crimson incandescence falling through the window. Though most of the figure stood in red shadows, the shine of pale hair was distinct._

_"You must be hungry..."_

_Outside, the dog barked once, sharply._

_The blade came down with a wet **snikt**, slicing through..._

_The dog didn't bark again._

_"Try some. It's good."_

_The redness flowed down his chin. It streaked his fingers, drawn through pale hair to push it away from his face, out of horrible blank eyes. A hollow moan, empty, hungry... his hunger eased but never sated on the flesh beyond golden fur. He wanted more than any animal._

_He wanted..._

_No! Nononono...!_

_He tore his gaze away, hearing the sick crunch of bones breaking and the thick, slick sound of heavy liquid being poured onto the counter. Breath rattled in, out, in again, drawing closer, reaching his back, brushing against his neck in a cold gust of air. _

_"Shh, it's okay..."_

_The hand that curled around his elbow was warm, not expected, and he turned, lifting his eyes to find a familiar face clean of weeping crimson, nothing coating his chin and his eyes reflecting that teasing green again, not lifeless white. Relief washed through him and he was suddenly in a safe embrace, being held tight as his fear slipped away._

_"You're okay."_

_He felt himself nodding, agreeing with that familiar voice._

_"C'mere..."_

_He tilted his head back, warm lips descending on his own. He sighed, their mouths working delicately against each other, teasing, tasting, flicks of tongues and soft nibbles..._

_Ow!_

_Teeth sank into his lip, stubbornly refusing to let go, biting deeper and deeper. The hot taste of copper filled his mouth. Blind desperation made him yank back, sick realization dawning that he wasn't released, but separated from a piece of his lower lip._

_Blind white eyes met his again. A soft, rattling mockery of a lustful moan breathed across his face. Blood spilled in two thin rivulets down his chin as teeth closed, ground together, opened and closed again._

_Run...!_

_But strong arms held him fast, cold hands caressing his hips, that bloody mouth reaching for him again, wanting more. He gave a quivering cry of protest, the sound muffled as wet lips covered his, long tongue lapping at the blood from his torn mouth before delving deep, firm and hungry. _

_He choked, eyes watering, and the overwhelming instinct to **bite**__was suddenly there, teasing his mind, and he listened, sinking teeth into that probing tong—_

_No._

_His gaze lifted, staring over the line of the pink skin of someone's bare shoulder, catching sight of his reflection in a pristine mirror. He was young, beautiful, blue eyes piercing and frozen, and the body in his arms was warm and so lovely, full of life... Sweet life._

_His own face stared back at him in the mirror, two of them, the other him reflecting absolute terror as he bit into the neck bared for him, teeth sinking further, deeper, heat spilling into his mouth. A shudder came from the slender, nude body caught in his cold embrace and he only acknowledged the reaction by tracing his palms down his prey's warm sides, sliding inward to stroke firm thighs. He drank deep, watching his reflection as his lashes fluttered with pleasure._

**_Wake up._**

The command echoed inside of him, drawing him from the sweet hold of the realm of dreams into the cold air of reality. Sora's mind took a moment to clear, confusion on the forefront of his mind as he realized that he had just been sleeping. _Sleeping_. What had he been doing last night to bypass his nightly rituals of insomnia to actually wake up from a deep sle—

Sora's eyes flew open, his heart suddenly racing inside of him as images from the night before and his dream flitted through his mind. He sat up, drawing in a shaky breath, icy fear clenching inside of him as he glanced down at the pillow he had actually just been gnawing on—from his dream—he'd bitten himself, just like last night—

It had been real.

Oh God. Paopu...

Tears stung his eyes as all the details of the _real_ nightmare came back to him. His cell phone dying on him, Paopu staying at his side, and then... Riku had opened the bedroom door, but it hadn't been _Riku_, but.. a monster... and Paopu had protected him and _died_ and...

"U-Urgh..."

A stab of pain pierced through his head, dizziness sweeping through his groggy mind, but as much as his body suddenly wanted to vomit, he couldn't, only a dry sob escaping him as he arched over the bed, giving a cry of anguish into the pillow. Last night he had watched a monster that looked like his boyfriend _tear _his dog apart and _eat_ him from the inside out. All of that blood...

Blood!

Panic swept through Sora as he sat back up, pressing a trembling hand to the side of his neck. A sharp sting welcomed him, his fingers brushing raw but closed puncture wounds.

Though that part of his memory was fuzzy, he still remembered his doppelganger. A vampire with his face. He hadn't killed him...

No. Sora swallowed against another sob, knowing his situation was far worse than death now. An icy chill crept up his spine, the pounding in his head growing as he slowly turned his body.

He was _not_ in his own bed. His clothes were gone. And...

Sora drew in a shaky breath, moving his legs to sit up better, queasy and quivering as he curled his weak body up. But as he moved, a rattle of metal on metal caught his attention. There, around his ankle, was the unmistakable sign of his imprisonment. A shackle of cold iron was the only thing he was wearing.

A warm tear trailed down his cheek as he reached out, tugging at the chain, testing the strong links. His eyes lifted, tracing the snakelike line over the edge of the bed where it spilled onto the floor. The end of the chain disappeared into the shadows under an old-fashioned high-backed chair of carved mahogany and plush crimson velvet. Lounging sideways in that chair, his dangling legs swinging slightly, a wicked grin on his lips, was...

_Him._

Sora suddenly made a throttled sound of blind terror and went scrambling back on the bed until he was pressed against the padded headboard separating him from the curved stone wall of the room. The chain rattled softly against the shackle as he tried to pull his whole body as far from the monster as he could, but—

"There's nowhere to run, precious."

His voice practically purred the cruel promise, and a cold shudder passed through Sora.

The vampire slid out of the chair, yanking it aside to show Sora the heavy eyehook driven into the exact center of the circular stone floor. Sora's chain was attached to the eyehook, giving him just enough slack to walk to the walls of the room with mere inches to spare.

"Even if you could get the door open or pull the bars off the windows, you'd have the chain to deal with. I doubt you're strong enough to break metal like that..." He paused here, eyes sharply focusing on the boy's trembling form. "And somehow I don't think you have a cutting torch hidden anywhere on your person."

Sora was abruptly reminded that he was naked, and the vampire chuckled as Sora crossed his legs _and_ covered himself with his hands for good measure, all too aware of the blush painting his cheeks. A sick feeling twisted inside of him—helplessness, maybe—and he swallowed against his raw throat, his gaze darting around the room, trying to evaluate his surroundings... _anything_ to avoid that piercing ice-blue stare that made him feel dirty and wrong and _scared_.

The whole room was circular, perhaps fifteen or twenty feet across, the walls made of large rough-hewn stones like something that would be found in a castle tower room. Tapestries hid most of the stone walls, though... and one look at their subject matter was enough to make Sora not want to look again, his heart clenching in his chest at the panicked thoughts again running through his mind.

The sickness grew within him and he tore his eyes away from the walls, looking elsewhere. A thick circular carpet padded the floor, a small hole in the middle allowing for the eyehook. The ceiling far above was beamed and covered with dark wood planks definitely less resilient than stone, but Sora had no hope of ever being able to reach it. Thoughts of escaping were smothered before he could even focus on them. Biting his lip, the ache in his head waning into a dull throb, he curled a hand into the sheets beneath him, wanting to throw up.

The bed he rested on was a thick, plush affair, softer and less lumpy than a featherbed, made up with fine linen bedclothes in shades of black, gray, and blood red. A heavy crimson velvet comforter lay folded at the foot of the bed, waiting to be pulled up if necessary. Four posts rose from the corners of the wrought-iron bed frame, fitted with thin rails for curtains. The inner layer of curtains were a silky black gauze, the outer layer a heavier, dark brocade that filtered out all light when they were drawn shut. For now, both layers were tied loosely to the posts, giving Sora his all too clear view of his prison.

The whole room was lit only by white candles in tall, black iron floor stands that were bolted to the floor, their light casting flickering shadows across everything...

Wait.

Sora blinked, dread twisting in his gut, and he focused on a dancing shadow in the bunched drape of a window curtain, realizing that it _wasn't_ a shadow at all. At least not completely. The long heavy fabric spilled onto the floor, and something was huddled in it like a half-opened cocoon, watching him with white, unblinking eyes.

The zombie.

Another shudder passed through him, tears springing to his eyes and a strangled sob escaping his lips, his mind filled with images of poor Paopu's blood on the creature's horrible face.

Zombie Riku watched him soundlessly, though he curled up a little tighter on himself at the sound of Sora's distress.

What...?

But before Sora could wonder, the vampire that looked too much like himself was already speaking again.

"I do hope you like your accommodations. Of course, you'll be sharing them with me for the time being."

Oh God...

Sora squeezed his eyes shut, feeling his heart race inside of him, nausea sweeping through him and making his world spin around him. He could still feel his captor's gaze on him, easily reading each of his reactions. Sora's despair deepened with the knowledge that he _couldn't_ hide anything from this predator. He had no defenses. He might as well have already been dead. He was only alive for this monster's sick entertainment.

"I suppose by now you're wondering why you're still alive." The vampire sat on the edge of the bed, reaching out to touch Sora's hair. With a whimper, Sora recoiled, earning a soft, deadly chuckle from his captor. "So beautiful... I thought it would be a shame to let mortality ravage that lovely face. You're so sweet, Sora... and I want to savor every drop before you die, eternally young and perfect."

Sora wrenched his eyes shut, a cold shudder running through his body at the vampire's words, and he fought back the scared tears that rose within him. As a small act of defiance, his limbs too weak for much else, he pulled away from the other Sora and turned his face, clenching his jaw and saying nothing. Even if he had the words, he didn't have the courage to speak them, that sick knot in his stomach tightening.

But the vampire would not be denied. He reached out, those cold fingers grabbing Sora's face, turning it back to see the wicked smile he wore.

"Don't cry, precious."

His hand crept up Sora's bare thigh.

"At least... not yet."

Sora released a terrified gasp and lifted his eyes to the other's, his heart twisting inside of him when he saw that sinister smile on his own face. And as the vampire advanced on him, Sora knew that those last words were an undeniable promise.


	2. Ch 1: let the hunt begin

_Authors' Notes: _

Most of the vampire and revenant info is of Dark Ki's creation and not based on traditional folklore, so it should be treated as such. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter One – Let The Hunt Begin**

-o-o-

Riku had never felt more lost in his life.

On any other day, the murmur of people around him and the clunking of the bus would usually calm him, but after everything that had happened that morning, the quiet whispers only unnerved him more. His only comforts at the moment were the small bag of hastily packed things at his feet and Auron sitting next to him, who, up until three hours ago, had just been Sora's creepy neighbor.

Now the guy was actually a criminal-hunting werewolf, and he and Riku were riding a bus together to God-knows-where to track down an evil vampire Sora who had kidnapped _his _Sora.

His entire world had been turned upside down, and here he was, stuck on a bus with a thousand more questions burning at his tongue, knowing that if he voiced any of them, Auron wouldn't answer, and the other half-dozen people around him would look at him like he was a lunatic for believing in underground organizations, supernatural creatures, and alternate realities.

If only they knew.

Hell, he would have been one of those skeptics, too, just yesterday. What's worse is that he felt like shit for never believing in Sora's fears. Look where it had gotten them.

A miserable sigh escaped him as he lowered his head, wanting nothing more than to wake up in bed with Sora to find out that all of this was some fucked up dream. Reality hurt too much for him to think about. He hated this feeling of uncertainty and dread more than anything, not knowing where this rickety bus ride was taking him, not sure if he could handle what his near future had in store for him, not wanting to see Sora if... Well, if Auron was right, and they got there too late.

He bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut, his fingers curling against his knees and clenching into his khaki pants, and for the rest of the trip, he tried to think of normal things. Like his homework. The paper due next week. How good Sora's mom's cookies sounded right about now. He hadn't eaten anything in his hurry.

A half hour later spent in silence, Riku wasn't relieved nor anxious when Auron finally announced that their bus stop was next. He felt numb, mechanical, and when the vehicle screeched to a stop, Riku just picked up his bag and followed the werewolf down the aisle, not saying a word. It wasn't until Auron had started off down the street that Riku bothered asking one of his many questions.

"Where are we going?"

Auron actually graced him with an answer. "Remember that organization I told you about, kid?"

"Yeah," Riku replied.

Reaching into a pocket of his denim jacket, Auron pulled out a flask and twisted the cap off, gulping down whatever liquid was in it. Probably more Goldschlager, from what Riku could smell as he trailed behind the older man. "Well," he said, voice slightly more hoarse. "To get to HQ, we need to get to a substation. This city happens to have a good one."

_Headquarters? He's taking me to some sort of headquarters? _he wondered. "Is it on another world? That what substation means?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Auron said grimly, stuffing his flask away.

Riku was getting really tired of all of these enigmatic answers. He walked on in silence, wondering why they were heading towards the outskirts of the city where all of the large corporate buildings were. He couldn't imagine any alternate reality substations or whatever sitting next to Fed-Ex or Miller Light.

But, sure enough, Auron led him right into one, and Riku recognized the flashy blue logo on the outside of the building. It was a huge, well-known computer company, and Riku half expected to be shot upon entrance for entering the place with someone as suspicious looking as Auron.

The man practically defined "scruff" with his rugged looks. He had that weathered face, that salt and pepper stubble, that jagged, short haircut and tiny ponytail that most likely hadn't been washed in a week, and that long, dark scar over one eye that looked like someone had taken a sling blade to his skull. Then again, the guy was a werewolf. Riku guessed he had reason to look so scruffy. Even his denim jacket had probably been through hell and back, what with how it was faded and stained and ripped in some places, but—Riku mused—at least it didn't stink.

He definitely didn't look like someone who should have been strolling right into a fancy, pristine computer corporation building. Riku held his bag closer to himself and followed right after him, heart beating a mile a minute, expecting to be pounced on by security guards even though his knowledgeable companion didn't seem to be worried.

As Auron strolled on ahead, Riku paused in the short hallway, lifting his face and taking a deep breath. He was greeted with the crisp factory smell of plastic and something faintly flowery. Maybe Febreeze? Auron led him into a small lobby, though there were other closed doors off down another hallway that Riku found himself wanting to explore. Offices? Where did they lead?

Riku followed silently, though he was still confused as to why they had come here of all places. He lingered behind as Auron approached the windowed desk at the end of the lobby. A man was already in front of Auron and was speaking with the receptionist. Unlike Auron, this guy looked like a CEO or someone who owned the place and belonged in such a fancy building. After a minute, he was done speaking with the woman behind the desk, and Riku tried not to stare as he watched the suited man disappear behind one of the two doors next to the receptionist's area. He went left, behind the numbered door, which was beige and nondescript. The other one, which led right, was white and unmarked. No number, no label saying where it led. It made Riku uneasy.

At the sound of Auron's voice, Riku returned his attention to the receptionist's desk, who actually _smiled_ when she saw Auron. Politely. Like she knew him.

"I called ahead," was Auron's form of greeting.

"Yes, Mr. Highwind said he was expecting you," she replied brightly, gesturing with a hand towards the two doors. "Have a safe trip."

Auron glanced over his shoulder at Riku, who tensed slightly when the woman noticed him for the first time. "He's coming with me. I'll take it up with Cid," Auron added, and then addressed Riku directly. "Come on, hurry up."

Cid Highwind? That sounded like a distinguished name, but it wasn't familiar. Riku wondered who he was.

Tightening his grip around the strap of his bag, he nodded to Auron and clenched his jaw, moving forward. The werewolf gave him an unreadable once-over and then turned towards the doors, dragging a hand through his graying hair. Not sure whether to be offended, uncomfortable, or passive about that kind of degrading glance, Riku narrowed his eyes at the back of Auron's head and followed him.

They were heading through the right door, opposite from the one the businessman had gone through.

"So what's with the computer company?" Riku asked as the older man pushed open the door.

Auron paused, looking over his shoulder to regard Riku with his good eye. "All of the energy they produce and require is a good front for the power needed to create and maintain the gates between worlds," he explained flatly, passing through the door. "This kind of façade business is common when it comes to keeping the supernatural world secret. Most of the employees working here probably don't even realize who their boss really is."

Riku found himself holding his breath as he hesitated just outside the unmarked room. "Cid Highwind?" he asked, taking a brave step through the threshold. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but nothing too extraordinary happened when he entered the next room. The door clicked shut behind him, and Riku noticed that Auron had stopped to wait for him, probably noticing his hesitation.

He was also smirking. "Cid Highwind?" he echoed, shaking his head. "He's just the guy who does the paperwork."

Riku blinked, and then, curiously, he looked past Auron. The room they had entered was small and just another lobby of some sort, but this time there was no receptionist to okay them through the next door, which was black and also unmarked, but this one didn't have a handle. There was no furniture in this room or anything on the walls except for a monitor next to the exit, which Riku assumed was one of the security things he had been expecting before.

For supposedly being connected to the supernatural world, all of this was pretty ordinary, Riku thought.

Auron approached the monitor and reached into his denim jacket, and Riku almost expected him to present his flask of Goldschlager, but Auron pulled out a glossy rectangle instead. An ID? Whatever it was, he held it up and spoke.

"Lycan and guest requesting permission."

Deeming it safe, Riku began to edge closer again, watching the monitor with interest.

There came a sharp beep, but instead of the door opening, a face flashed onto the screen—a very close-up face of a man looking down his nose at them, who took a moment to study them before he moved closer until only his eyes were shown on the monitor, his brow furrowing at Riku.

"Ya didn't mention a guest when you called earlier," came the slightly gruff voice, not quite as deep as Auron's, but the rough edge sounded similar. "Well, he ain't undead if he's coming in the daylight. Did ya pick up a straggler?"

"I told you the targets got away when I called you earlier. He's a witness," Auron said, and Riku detected a hint of impatience in his tone. "Not the revenant."

"The Cleaner didn't purge him?"

Auron released a sigh, tucking his ID away. "Just open up. I don't have time for twenty questions."

The man behind the monitor narrowed his eyes. As he backed away from the screen, more of his face was revealed, and Riku had a good look at him for the first time. He was middle-aged, blond, and he looked almost as scruffy as Auron did, stubble and all. "Fine, but I have to write him up if you expect to take him with you."

"Fine," Auron replied.

The monitor bleeped out and there came a sudden, loud hiss, like steam was being released somewhere—or the air pressure was changing. Then, with an unceremonious whirr, the black door slid open, admitting the two men. Auron wasted no time in passing through it, and Riku was right on his heels, not surprised when the door hissed closed behind them again.

This room was long and sizeable, and a small archway stood right in front of them, sort of like an archaic metal detector. Just beyond that sat the man from before, right in front of several giant screens, including a small one that Riku assumed he had used just a second ago.

But the first thing Riku really noticed about the room was its _aura_. Riku didn't consider himself familiar at all with anything supernatural or magical, but he definitely sensed _that_. The air almost seemed to hum with an unseen energy, so much that Riku felt his skin tingle and the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

He must have visibly tensed at the feeling, for both Auron and the blond man fixed their gazes on him.

"What yer feelin' there is magic, kid," the guy from the monitor said. He sounded a little amused as if he hadn't encountered someone like Riku in a while. "This place has a weak world boundary anyway, but without all of the power focused here, it would have just felt like a bit of vertigo. Ever experienced that before?"

Riku swallowed, gripping his bag harder as he thought back to a few hours ago when he had seen Paopu's mangled body buzzing with flies and smelling like rotten flesh and bile. Yeah, he'd experienced vertigo. Right before he had hurled onto the floor.

"Kind of," was all he said, letting his gaze travel. The wide screens on the back wall all depicted different scenes, and Riku wondered where they were all linked to. Most of them seemed to be overlooking certain places, but the scenes shifted after a few seconds, alternating different places around the city that Riku recognized.

"Been getting a lot of activity today," the man commented as he started towards them, gesturing for Riku to approach the strange archway. "A few Cleaners, including yer buddy number eight."

Axel, Riku remembered. The Cleaner who had erased all evidence of the crime committed last night. Paopu's death, Sora's disappearance, all of those neighborhood pets torn apart in the attic... The only thing Riku had gotten out of it was Paopu's collar, cleaned and looking new.

When Riku had gotten home earlier, he had numbly set the collar on his bed before he had started packing for this last minute trip. He hadn't called anyone, not even Tidus, who he and Sora were supposed to be meeting later that night for a few hours of gaming. He hadn't called Leon either, who would probably be wondering where his study partner had gone off to. He hadn't even called Seiya, Sora's mom—but how could he? What would he have said?

"I can imagine," Auron replied stoically, pulling out his flask of Goldschlager. "Anyone else?"

"Yeah," the man said, and this time he gestured more impatiently at Riku. "C'mere, kid, you're in a hurry, ain't ya?"

As if caught doing something wrong, Riku snapped out of his thoughts and gave a half-hearted smile in return, moving forward. If he'd had any lingering doubts about Auron's story, he realized there was no room for them now. This was all real. All of these people seemed to know what was going on, and all Riku could do was go along with the ride, wherever it took him.

"The name's Cid," the man said as Riku paused in front of the archway. "Ever been to an airport? This is the same concept. Stick yer bag through here and then walk through. Just checking for stuff. Can't have ya smuggling imps or something."

Deciding not to question that, Riku did as told, trying to ignore the nervous flutter in his stomach as he watched Cid pass his hands over his bag of stuff. It was like he was doing a metal detecting swipe with his palms, only he wasn't looking for weapons.

"There was also an exorcist-in-training earlier, believe it or not," Cid continued after a moment, finishing with his bag. "Ah, yer all clear. Go ahead," he added as he motioned for Riku to pass through the archway.

Riku held his breath, closing his eyes as he stepped forward, a shiver running through him as he passed under the archaic arch, feeling a chilling rush of _something_, like a thousand cold fingers sliding over him—but then he was past the arch and it was gone, leaving his nerves crawling.

He paused just in front of Cid, who was bent over a smaller monitor, which was scrolling with a readout of information that Riku couldn't decipher. Had all of that come from just the arch thing? It didn't even look like it was hooked up to any electronic equipment, but Riku couldn't think of anything else. Except magic.

"Undeniably human," Cid announced, straightening. He turned towards Riku, adjusting his unlit cigarette to the other side of his mouth, and he narrowed his eyes at him as if he hadn't seen a pure human in a long time. "It ain't my place to ask a lot of questions about a hunter's business, but why ya taking the kid if he ain't nothin' special?"

Riku glanced at Auron, who had already put his flask away again. He passed right through the arch without a care, sounding as nonchalant as he looked. "I'll brief you on it later. Why was the exorcist traveling?"

Cid seemed a little miffed about not getting answers, but he shrugged it off and moved over to another computer station, leaning over the keyboard and punching something in quickly. "Not sure. Guess he got called in. He was pretty young, but he had some insane readings despite being human. Said he wasn't licensed yet."

Auron gave a thoughtful sound. "Probably unrelated, then," he commented, and then nodded towards Riku. "The kid needs a badge."

"On it already," Cid announced. "Stand inside the little circle on the floor."

Riku glanced at Auron, who gave a small, encouraging nod. Feeling like he was back in high school, Riku sighed and stepped into the circle, facing a large screen, which suddenly illuminated with his image, showing a full body view of his front, back, and side profile, a list of statistics running down the side of the monitor. Very high tech and automatic. Okay, so maybe it wasn't like high school, because whatever this organization was, it was about ten years ahead in technology whereas everything else in this city was behind like five.

A minute later, Cid was presenting him with a shiny little badge with his image on it, which boldly stated things like: Guest, Male, _Homo sapien w1-0442_. The basics, most likely. Riku took it and clipped it to his shirt, trying not to feel awkward being _labeled_ as a human for the first time in his life. It did not make him feel any more comfortable about wherever he was going.

"Aaand, you both gotta sign in. Here," Cid said, shoving a slender, electronic clipboard at him. "I'll contact Lex to get the portal goin'."

As the man returned his attention to the monitors and numerous keypads, Riku blinked down at the list of people in his hands, wondering if he would recognize any of them. There were a few names that ended with "CL" and numbers, which probably stood for Cleaners because he saw Axel on there. The very last name signed was in a language that Riku couldn't read, which was probably the exorcist they had been talking about. When he lifted the connected pen to sign his own name, he was surprised to find his hand trembling again. He wrote as clearly as he could before passing it to Auron.

When the werewolf took it, Riku noticed a few scars marring his rough skin. Auron did look like he had gone through a hard life as a hunter or whatever he was. There was so much Riku didn't know yet, but he couldn't find the words to ask what he really wanted. What to expect, who he'd meet, where they were going, how he was going to protect himself...

Auron noticed him staring and stared back, dark eye narrowing. "You've been too quiet," he said.

Tearing his eyes away, Riku opened his mouth and closed it, unsure of what to say. He settled with his latest question. "What does the w1-0442 stand for on my badge?"

"After your genus and species name?" Cid asked, overhearing him. He was busy typing with one hand, fingers flying over foreign-looking keys. "The first number stands for what kind of world you're comin' from so that the Organization knows how to handle ya if something happens. The hyphenated digit after that number stands for which specific world, so they can ship ya back. This world's oh-four-four-two."

Riku hadn't really been expecting the supernatural world to be so... complicated. "Oh," he replied, glancing away from Auron.

"Okay, incoming!" Cid announced, pulling away from his work. "Just in time. Lex is on shift. His portals are always more stable, this place being built right where a hundred ley lines intersect and all. Hub of geomancy, and Lex is all about Earth anyway."

Riku didn't even catch half of that, his attention suddenly focused on Auron again, who had slipped a hand around his arm and was leading him towards another room.

Past Cid was an empty room like a foyer or airlock, yet another door on the far wall. This door was much heavier and much larger than the others, sealed with all manner of strange electronic locks. Even so, the strange energy present beyond the vault door was stronger than ever, a tense hum in the air.

Auron turned over his ID, revealing a barcode that he swiped through one of the electronic locks. One by one, the lights beside each lock turned from red to amber, and once they were all amber, they switched to green simultaneously. The door slid open with a smooth, low sound, a heavy _thunk_ locking them in place.

Riku walked ahead of Auron this time, eager to be out of this place with its unnerving energies. Would Sora be going crazy here, his Sensitivity on edge? But then Riku remembered that if Sora was still with him, they wouldn't have even been here. He shook the thought out of his head, clenching his jaw against another wave of tears.

Inside, the room was very dim, only a huge glowing circle carved into the stone floor providing any light. The room itself was massive, the size of a college gymnasium, and Riku wondered just how many people they could transmit at a time from a room like this. But nothing intimidated him more than the massive man standing on the far side of the circle, his arms folded. He had slightly wavy, slicked back brown hair and a strong square jaw. His lips pulled into a thin line when he saw the other two men.

"Lexaeus." Auron acknowledged the man with a curt nod.

"Auron." Lexaeus's voice was like a rumble of thunder. His gaze swiveled to Riku, who cowered internally. "Who's this?"

Riku was getting a little sick of being questioned, even if he could understand why.

"He's accompanying me on a mission. Temporary agent for the Organization."

Well, it was better than being a guest or some random hanger-on.

Lexaeus grunted and held out a hand toward the circle. Auron pulled Riku into it, and Riku shivered as the unnatural prickle under his skin suddenly jumped in intensity. He felt like he'd never stop shaking.

"Hold on tight. The first transit is always the worst," Auron said quietly, and—was that _concern_ in his voice?

Riku took a deep breath and nodded to Lexaeus, not knowing if the big man even cared if he was ready or not. Lexaeus clenched his fist, a rumbling hum rising from his throat, growing slowly in intensity. The circle began to glow brighter in response to his voice, veins of light rushing in from the far edges of the floor to add their strength to it. In a sudden flash, the circle erupted upward into a pillar of brilliant prismatic light. Riku's skin felt like it was trying to crawl off his body, and he wasn't quite able to stifle a noise of discomfort. Auron glanced at him, raising the brow over his good eye in silent questioning.

Riku barely had the chance to nod before his entire body was struck by the feeling of a thousand powerful static shocks that ripped him apart and flung his molecules elsewhere.

-o-o-

Numbness had finally settled into Sora's mind, but it had done nothing for his body.

He lay on his stomach, his arms curled around a tear-stained pillow, hating how vulnerable he felt with his bare ass exposed. He didn't dare to roll onto his back or his side though, the horrible ache of abuse sure to make him scream if he did. Even the slight weight of the blankets on his battered flesh made him tremble.

That weight was carefully lifted away, and Sora glanced back over his shoulder at the one responsible. His heart froze.

The zombie.

The awful facsimile of Riku peeled back the blanket, his empty eyes watching Sora carefully. Despite the protests of his body, Sora jerked away from the creature, his throat—still raw from screaming—trying to shape a cry of alarm. But zombie Riku simply snared his wrist and pulled him gently back.

For a moment, Sora trembled, waiting for the zombie to pin him and steal pleasure from his body as the vampire had done. But "Riku" turned and picked up a basin of what looked like warm water, lifting a rag from it. Sora noticed he was wearing waterproof gloves that covered his strong hands and forearms almost to the elbow. The medicinal-smelling liquid stung a little when the zombie began cleaning his wounds, starting with the punctures in his neck that had been opened once again by the vampire's fangs.

"Why... why are you doing this?" Sora's voice trembled, raspy with overuse.

The zombie glanced up from his work for a moment, a barely perceptible shift in his features making Sora wonder what emotion, if any, he was seeing in the creature's eyes. The moment passed quickly, zombie Riku turning his attention back to his task. Sora glanced away, too, unable to watch as those black rubber-gloved hands moved over his body. Still, he could feel as the wet cloth circled his bitten nipples, the liquid seeping into the deep wounds.

"... sorry... about... dog..."

Sora's gaze snapped back to the zombie's expressionless face. It had been Riku's voice that spoke, but low and soft and more raspy than Sora's. Each word was forced out with effort, and the zombie didn't meet his eyes.

"Did you just... talk?"

To Sora's shock, the zombie nodded once, dipping the cloth into the basin and cleaning a long scratch left down Sora's arm from the vampire's nails, then repeating the process on the twin bites on Sora's inner thighs. The water had turned a faint pink by now.

"... you said you were sorry..."

Again, the zombie nodded, and now Sora watched his eyes reflect remorse that was very human.

"... master... ordered... attack..."

Even seeing the zombie's lips move didn't do anything to stop Sora's shock. He just stared mutely, the sting of his injuries forgotten. This was a far cry from the feral, snarling monster that had attacked Sora and Paopu. This poor creature really was almost... human.

Zombie Riku set the basin and cloth down, gently urging Sora to lay back down on his stomach.

"... sorry... about... this... too..."

Oh God, he really was going to rape Sora! The poor brunette tensed, shaking, fresh tears running down his cheeks as he hid his face in the pillow. He nearly screamed when he was penetrated by something slender, a gush of warm fluid splashing against his insides.

"... have... to... or... will... turn..."

Another three or four spurts of warmth, and the invading object was removed. Only then did Sora dare to look, his body relaxing a little when he saw that the liquid running down his thighs and onto a towel tucked under him wasn't thick and white, but clear swirled with a little cloudy red that stained the white towel. His gaze moved up to the small bottle in the zombie's hand. It had a long, narrow nozzle on the tip, similar to the kind Riku used to drizzle raspberry syrup on his ice cream.

An enema bottle.

Oh God, how _humiliating!_

Sora recoiled in disgust, a sense of violation overriding the ache of his body. He rolled onto his side, keeping his aching rear end away from the creature. Zombie Riku looked apologetic, quickly wrapping the bottle in the stained towel and setting both aside out of sight.

"Wh—what the hell was that for?"

The zombie shook his head. "... told... you... have... to... or... will... turn..."

Sora shuddered as he realized what the creature was talking about, hugging himself protectively. "You mean, his... if it stays inside me, it'll make me sick?"

"... turn... into... vampire... or..." The zombie touched his own chest, over his dead heart, before reaching to pull the blankets over Sora again.

The idea of becoming like this pitiful, horrible monster made a bubble of sickness rise in Sora's throat, and he choked it down with a whimper.

"... rest... master... return... nightfall..."

The look in the zombie's milky eyes left no questions about what the vampire with Sora's face would do to his captive come sundown.

It was all Sora could do to curl into a ball and pray he died before then.

-o-o-

The first thing Riku did when his body was reconstructed was collapse onto his hands and knees, gasping in a shaking lungful of air. Every inch of his body ached, a terrible chill settling into his very bones. He glanced at his arms, horrified to see a thin sheen of frost clinging to his skin.

Auron hauled him to his feet, eyeing the shivering boy. "You were nervous. The transition froze your perspiration. It's only minor, it'll pass." And then he was moving, breezing past Riku out of the room, which looked exactly like the one they had just left except the gate circle's light was bright and steady, a faint shimmering column rising from it. Riku hurried after him, expecting to see another nondescript room past the airlock.

What he saw was anything but nondescript.

The wide hallway sprawled out in either direction, curving around as if the building was a circle. The floors gleamed with polished dark granite tiles, the outer wall paneled with some kind of matte-finished, light colored surface. The entire inner wall was glass, giving Riku a good look at a huge atrium with actual plants and even a fake waterfall cascading down a twelve foot "mountain" of rocks in the middle. It was so beautiful, so calming, that Riku moved toward a door in the glass, wanting to take a closer look.

"Where are you going?" Auron's voice was stern.

"I... I just wanted to see. I need to clear my mind a little." Riku couldn't keep a guilty expression off his face. Here he was, wanting to sightsee when his boyfriend was missing and possibly dead. But he needed a break just for a little while, or else he'd explode.

"... I need to report in. I'll be back for you in fifteen minutes, got it?"

Riku nodded, his feet moving almost before he turned his attention back to his destination. He ended up walking right into somebody. An apology leaped to his lips as he looked up.

And up.

And UP.

A huge demonic looking creature with green, pebbly, scaly skin and horns growing out of its head and the back of its hands glared down at Riku with beady yellow eyes like a snake's. Oddly, it was wearing an expensive-looking suit and tie, though its clawed feet were bare. An ID badge was clipped to its lapel, though Riku didn't have enough presence of mind to bother reading it. The demon's rough lips parted, showing off a mouth of jagged teeth.

Riku squeaked.

The creature smiled. "Sorry about that, old chap. I don't believe either of us was paying much attention. You quite alright?"

Riku could only nod.

"Good. Well, cheerio!" And with that, the demonic being patted him gently on the head and went on its merry way, whistling.

Riku stood frozen for a moment, stunned, before he headed for the door.

Beyond it, he was greeted by the sound of water and birds and the smell of fresh greenery. He made a beeline for a bench right beside the water, an arbor built over it covered with creeping sweet pea flowers of all colors.

They'd always been one of Sora's favorite flowers.

Riku's heart wrenched at the thought of how much Sora would love these.

"Hey, new guy?"

Riku didn't respond at first, until he heard the same person clearing his throat loudly. He turned, noticing a young man standing beside him. The newcomer was barely as tall as Sora but built even more powerfully than Riku, his biceps practically rippling with muscle that matched the contours hinted at under his tight black t-shirt. His bangs were spiked up, the rest of his blond hair slicked back, and a strange black tattoo covered most of his left cheek. Bright blue eyes, energetic and cheerful, watched Riku carefully. So familiar. So much like Sora.

God, he'd never be able to stop thinking about Sora.

He must have made a pained face or something, for the blond man was quick to wave his hands in a disarming gesture, taking Riku's expression the wrong way. "Whoa, sorry, didn't mean to scare ya," he said, the amiability in his voice genuine. When Riku just stared at him, he stuck a hand out to introduce himself. "Name's Zell Dincht. Might have heard of me."

That last statement was a bit hopeful, and Riku didn't have the heart to tell him that he hadn't heard of him. Not yet, at least. He took the man's hand, not surprised when those fingers curled around his with a firm, not quite painful grip. They shook, and Zell released him.

"Riku," he replied, surprised at how calm he managed to sound. He casually glanced over Zell, not seeing a badge anywhere. "Um..."

Zell took a step back, rubbing the back of his head and laughing. "Sorry, I was shadowboxing over there and noticed that you showed up with Auron!"

Relieved that this conversation was headed in a direction that could be useful to him, Riku gave a quick nod. "Yeah. I'm..." What had Auron said? "I'm a temporary agent for the Organization."

"Working with _Auron_?" Zell asked, lifting his eyebrows in surprise.

"That's right," Riku said, wondering if he should have been worried about that being surprising in the first place. "Why?"

"Dude, because it's _Auron_," Zell laughed, emphasizing the man's name as if it should be obvious. "_The_ Auron. Wow, you really must be new if you haven't heard all the stories."

Riku looked away, idly fiddling with his badge. "Yeah, to tell you the truth, I didn't even believe in any of this a few hours ago."

Brow furrowing, Zell inclined his head. "Any of what?"

"_This_," Riku replied, gesturing to the building. "Magic, werewolves, vampires, supernatural stuff." He lifted his badge. "Just a human."

At that, Zell's surprise turned into disbelief. "No way," he gaped, eyeing Riku's badge. A look of awe passed over his face as he studied Riku, slowly beginning to grin again. "I wonder what he has planned for you. I bet you don't even know you're working with a _legend_, man. Auron's not that old in the supernatural sense, but he's one of the older lycans and longest surviving members of the Organization. Man, especially with _his _job."

"One of the older... lycans?" Riku asked.

"Yeah, lycan, as in lycanthrope—a _were_, as in werewolf, though there are other kinds of lycans, too. Most of them start going nuts," Zell said, expression turning grim all of a sudden. "The transformations are really hard on the body, I hear, but worse on the mind. All of that pain. Auron's been around so long because he has the Organization's benefits. This place has the best scientists in all of the worlds, y'know."

Riku stared for a moment, thinking that over. He honestly hadn't even considered how hard being a werewolf might have been, but Zell was right. Movies made transforming seem kind of easy, but reality was probably a thousand times worse. "Jeez..." was all he managed.

"And Auron has an insane record of narrow escapes," Zell continued. "He's not a slayer like me or some of the others, no. He's spent most of his career chasing after that psycho kid vampire who tortured and killed his partner. And let me tell you, a hundred Organization members must have fallen because of that bastard... yet Auron is still going strong. S'why he's a legend."

Riku's mind did a complete backtrack, rewinding to the first conversation he'd had with Auron about the vampire. _He's one of the underworld's most notorious criminals. The Organization has been after him for years and he's never been caught. He's called unkillable. _Auron had been talking from experience, definitely.

"Auron had a partner?" Riku asked quietly, remembering what else Auron had told him about vampire Sorah. _You're not the first one to lose someone to his whims. He'll have his fun with your Sora and get rid of him._

"Yeah," Zell said, blue eyes sharpening as he studied Riku again. "And he hasn't had one since."

Riku nearly leapt a foot in the air when he heard the deep voice behind them.

"Zell."

Both of them turned to find Auron standing there, frowning, dark eye narrowed. He probably didn't even have to be a werewolf to have overheard Riku and Zell talking about him. The blond suddenly straightened himself and looked embarrassed, and Riku moved towards Auron automatically, knowing that his little break was over. At least he had learned something more about the man who had pulled him into this.

Auron gave Zell a curt nod. "You took down Garland."

As if that simple gesture had been a hundred congratulations, Zell's face lit up with pride. "Yeah!"

"It's the talk of the day," Auron said stonily, turning his gaze to Riku. "We're cleared for supplies. Come on." Without waiting, he moved to leave the atrium.

Riku glanced at Zell, who was beaming with accomplishment as he stared after Auron. Unable to help a little smile of his own, Riku turned to follow the werewolf, the smell of sweet pea lingering on his clothes as they left the enclosed garden.

"Who was Garland?" Riku asked once they were heading down the curved hallway.

"Used to be a scientist here," Auron said. "He was an expert at cloning and got too obsessed with playing God with them." He fell silent for a moment before reaching for his flask of Goldschlager. "Seems like the Sorah incident last night hasn't gotten around yet, otherwise that would have been the talk of the day, not Garland."

At first Riku didn't understand the significance of that comment, but the words settled in and struck home. "Sorah incident? You mean _your_ slip up!" he said, his eyes narrowing into a glare. Even if Auron was bringing him along to try to get Sora back, it could have been avoided in the first place.

Auron didn't even look at him. "I took the blame," he said, "but it wasn't my slip up." He took a swig of his flask, flicked the cap back on, and then tucked it away again, Riku watching him the whole time, expectantly waiting for him to continue. "I requested back up for the full moon, but no one arrived. And I couldn't leave my post."

That sounded suspicious. "But if Sorah's such a big, bad vampire, you'd think they would have sent you your back up," Riku said.

Auron gave a noise of agreement. "They're looking into it."

"Who is?" Riku asked.

"My boss."

Feeling increasingly nosy, Riku regarded him curiously. "Who's your boss anyway?"

Auron did not have a straight answer for that. "No one's really sure," he said, leading Riku down a branch off the circular hallway. "There are rumors, but no one has seen him. We try not to question it. You know Metatron?"

"The voice of God?" Riku asked.

"Yeah. Like that. Instead of meeting with people personally, the superior in the Organization uses one man to play messenger," Auron explained. His voice lowered, taking on a slightly more dry tone. "We'll probably run into him soon. He has a way about showing up for status reports when I'm in the middle of something." Before Riku could comment, Auron turned to give him a cynical smile. "I'm one of his favorites."

Riku had a feeling that wasn't something to be proud of. "Any specific reason why?"

Auron didn't seem to be bothered by his twenty-questioning, so Riku figured if he did approach a subject Auron didn't want to discuss, he'd give him one of those, "That's something you don't need to know," answers.

In this case, he just gave a small shrug, looking forward again. "Sometimes he seems to have almost as much of a grudge against that vampire as I do." And that was all.

Riku studied him in their silence, trying not to get distracted by the many strange figures they were passing in the hallways. The rest of their trip to the supplies room was short, and Auron didn't speak again until after he had used his ID to gain access to the place, which was again large and circular, sleek and modern, yet somehow still had that hint of fashion that Riku could associate with stuff like vampiric organizations. Headquarters itself reminded him of something like _Men in Black _meeting the dark, gothic fashion of _Underworld_, and he realized that he could blame Tidus again for all of his movie references.

He sadly wondered if he'd even be seeing Tidus again, let alone having another movie night with Sora and him and some of the other guys. It was like he kept getting a reality check and had to remember over and over again that all of this was real. It was still sinking in, and painfully.

But it was hard to be optimistic when he recalled everything Auron and Zell had told him about the vampire that had taken his Sora. The thing was called _unkillable_ and had supposedly taken the lives of a hundred Organization members.

As Auron left his side to deal with the controls of the room, Riku found himself staring dispassionately at the far wall, feeling his nerves beginning to knot up again.

God, could he even do this? Was Auron insane for bringing him along? Wouldn't he just get in the way?

He didn't get too far into his thoughts, however, before abruptly Auron cut into them with a pitiless statement. "It's too late to be questioning yourself now, kid." He hadn't even paused with his work as he spoke.

Riku frowned and clutched his bag closer to himself again. "Can you read minds too or something?" he muttered half-heartedly.

Auron finished keying something into the panel on the wall and turned away from it at last, gazing at Riku with an unsympathetic expression. "No, but I can smell it on you," he said, and Riku found himself tensing a little at that. "You're worried. Not that you shouldn't be. It's natural to be scared."

_Especially if I'm young, inexperienced, and a lowly human,_ Riku thought dejectedly. _What does he expect from me? I just want Sora back... _But he knew he had to suck it up if he wanted to see Sora again.

Auron said nothing again for a few seconds, and Riku grasped onto another worry.

"Am I... going to die?" he wondered, sounding hollow in the empty circular room.

"Very likely," was Auron's immediate response. "Though there are worse fates. The vampire wouldn't hesitate in turning you into a mindless pet of his."

Riku's gaze lifted and focused on the werewolf, his lips pulling into a grim line, but he said nothing about that, opting instead to move on with their business. "What are we waiting for now?"

Auron's dark eye sharpened a fraction, but he let Riku change the subject. "Supplies," he answered shortly, reaching a hand out to punch a key on the panel. "I needed you to focus. Are you done?"

Even if Riku had said no, he knew the werewolf would have moved on. A moment after Auron finished with the control panel, sections of the circular room hissed open and revolved, revealing drawers, shelves, racks, displays, and pedestals of countless weapons of all varieties and shapes. Riku felt his eyes widen as he took in all of the power now surrounding him. Even a large screen, once white and blended into the rest of the circular white room, was now illuminated with various blocks of scrolling information. From the center of the floor projected a cylinder of light with similar moving information. It almost looked like a search directory.

"Whoa..." was all he managed to utter as he took a step back, glancing all around.

"There's a lot here, but we only need a few things," Auron said as he moved past Riku towards a line of tall racks of what looked like... bottles? "This supply room covers almost every weapon available to apprehend or take down supernatural creatures and individuals, and even covers the different species from the different worlds that the Organization has discovered."

Spotting a shelf of wicked looking guns, Riku started honing in on them, interested. "So are these like full of silver bullets or something?" Auron emitted a dry laugh at that, surprisingly, and Riku turned to give him a confused look. "What?"

"Our targets are derivatives of a rare species of sanguinide, unfortunately."

Riku watched Auron begin pulling out some of the bottles from the rack—which weren't bottles at all, he saw. They were stakes. Golden stakes. "What does that mean?" he asked, eyeing the stakes in a confused manner.

"Meaning their weaknesses are different from most other species," Auron said, glancing at him. "And in any case, silver is a lycan weakness. In the case of vampires..." He paused, lips curling into an strange little smile. "Well, why would you use a metal associated with the night to kill a _creature_ of the night?" he asked. "They're allergic to the sun, and, therefore, to gold." He lifted two of the gold stakes, expertly twirling them once in his large hands. "At least, that's true for the species we're tracking."

When Auron held the stakes out to him to take, Riku gave him a skeptical look. "...what happened to holy water and crosses?"

"You can use them..." Auron said, lifting a brow in challenge, "if you want the vampire to laugh at you while his revenant is tearing out your insides."

Point taken.

Auron knew his stuff. Riku only had movie folklore to base his knowledge off. Better listen to the expert.

Riku zipped open his bag and closed the distance between himself and Auron. He tried not to blanch at the thought of getting so close to a vampire Sora that he had to shove a stake through its heart. He said nothing as Auron dropped the stakes into his bag and moved onto the next rack, which was also filled with stakes, but this time not made of gold.

"These are fresh," Auron noted approvingly, lifting a few yellow-green stakes. "Very fresh. Just made. Living green wood is the only kind of wood that can puncture their flesh, but it still has to hit the heart to kill them. The disadvantage is that cut wood eventually dies and is useless, but if we do this right and fast, we won't have to worry about restocking these."

When Auron carefully placed half a dozen greenwood stakes into the bag next, Riku couldn't help voicing another question. "Why so many of these?"

"Greenwood is cheaper, easier to shape, and is readily available. The vampires also can't smell it."

"Ah."

"Hunters use both greenwood and gold stakes for a reason," Auron continued to explain as he left the racks. He was heading for a shelf of knives. "It keeps the vampires from healing as long as it's present. Anything else either bounces off, or only penetrates slightly... and is then pushed immediately out of the body by the vampire's regeneration."

Jeez, what scary bastards.

Riku held onto his bag with white knuckles as Auron went around the room, dumping essentials into it. Riku just watched, only voicing questions when necessary, listing off a large number of items as the bag got heavier and heavier.

Several knives edged in gold went in there, which Riku didn't have to ask about. He did question the flashlight, which he learned was equipped with UV mode, and Auron explained that vampires like Sorah hated sunlight because of the UV rays.

A glossy rope also went into his bag, and Auron explained that it was silk woven with a special alloy, which could be broken by vampires and revenants, but it took time to stretch the fibers enough to break them. That time, he said, was sometimes all it took. Took for what, Riku didn't ask. He hardly wanted to think about it.

When Auron got to the guns, Riku was disappointed when he passed right over them. At first he thought Auron might just have an aversion to projectiles, but Auron had an explanation for that, too.

"Gold-tipped bullets don't work well," he said as he moved to a standing rack of medieval-looking weapons. "Gold's too soft to make a good bullet. It messes up in the firing. For a while, the Organization tried hollow points filled with gold filings, but the casing bounced off the vampire's skin without bursting. Not very impressive during a fight to the death."

Riku had to agree.

Though, when Auron presented him with a small crossbow, Riku felt like he was being given a toy, not a weapon. "It's puny," he said, trying not to think about how his arms were already aching from how heavy his bag was now. Well, okay, so the crossbow wasn't puny, really. When Auron unfolded it, it was about as long as his arm from his elbow to the tip of his middle finger.

"Titanium frame," the werewolf said pointedly, eye sharp. "It only weighs a pound or so, but its power is unmatched. And it auto-pulls. With gold-tipped bolts, it makes a formidable weapon, though it might take some getting used to." He turned towards a shelf above the rack, browsed it for a second, and then found a long box—gold-tipped bolts—and dropped that into Riku's bag as well, which hung dangerously low to the floor. "There. That's it for you."

Wait, all of this was for _him?_

He opened his mouth to protest, only to realize that it was probably better to be overstocked than it was to be dead.

Auron saw the look and smirked. "You're catching on," he noted.

Riku gave an ill at ease smile. "And I'm just supposed to tote this around everywhere?"

Auron gestured towards the center of the room. "Put your stuff down and stand in the cylinder."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Relieved to be able to put his bag down, Riku did as told, and, hesitating a moment, he reached a hand out, passing it through the hologram that made up the cylinder of light. It tingled a little. Stepping through, he lifted his head, gazing around at the scrolling information that now circled him.

"You're inexperienced and just a human, so body armor will be essential if you want to survive this," Auron said from beyond the hologram. "This will take your measurements and point you towards what will fit. The idea is for nothing to be too loose, which would give the enemy something to grab, or too tight, which would restrict your movement."

Riku wanted to make a comment about Auron's denim jacket, but he kept his tongue, figuring that a werewolf and someone as experienced as Auron probably had room to be careless. Plus, the guy had been on a stakeout, not a suicide mission like they were about to go on.

"Stay still."

Tensing, Riku listened, remaining motionless and even holding his breath. There came a soft beeping sound—Auron was probably messing with the control panel again—and then, suddenly, a shrill noise cut through the room, signaling the start of something. Riku forced himself to stay still as the cylinder suddenly contracted around him, hugging his form—his actual body mass, he noticed, and not the shape he made in his clothes.

A few blinding lights passed over him, the hologram and lasers making his hair stand on end, but after a minute or so, everything ended. The cylinder around him returned to its previous form, scrolling around him with flashing information that he assumed read his results.

From beyond the hologram, Riku heard Auron grunt something that sounded like, "Too skinny."

"I'll have you know that I'm not that out of shape," Riku muttered.

Auron said nothing for a few moments, and he wondered if maybe he could leave the humming cylinder, but he didn't dare move in case the werewolf told him to stay put again. Sure enough, a bundle of black came flying through the hologram and hit him in the face. Trying not to get annoyed, Riku brushed it off and unfolded his new clothes.

"...are these going to fit me?" he asked skeptically.

His only answer was a pair of boots rolling to a stop near his sneakers.

_Listen to the expert, Riku,_ he reminded himself, biting his lip as he started to undress. After stripping down completely, he checked out each article of clothing, noticing that everything seemed to be black and synthetic, form-fitting and durable. He was totally not used to wearing skintight _anything_—he'd always left that to Sora and his wetsuits. This outfit was almost as body-hugging as that and seemed to be made of some sort of artificial leather infused with a really resilient yet malleable material.

"Is this standard?" Riku wondered, starting to slip on the black briefs provided.

"It's body armor. Hunters use it," Auron said. "I have some more to give you, so hurry up."

Riku grudgingly obeyed, trying not to feel awkward that the outfit left very little of his body to the imagination. After the underwear came a very lightweight short-sleeved shirt made of some sheer, formfitting fabric.

As Riku pulled on the heavier pants, hopping around a little as he tried to work one leg at a time into the tight garment, he felt grateful for the fact that the nights were already much cooler with the impending autumn chill creeping in. The soft leathery material clung to his body even before he zipped up the fly and the zippers that ran up the outside of the legs from ankle to knee. Riku took note of some straps on the hips and long, narrow pockets that ran parallel to the leg zippers, wondering what they were for.

When he knelt to pull on his socks, which were tall and thicker around the ankles, he was pleasantly surprised by how flexible and completely unrestricting the pants were. His boots, designed with thick soles and rough grips, were easy to pull on and zip up, and they came to his mid-calf, the zipper secure under a buckle that didn't stick out too much.

Next came the top part of the armor, really just a heavy leather top with a high neck that reminded Riku of motorcycle leathers. Actually, the whole outfit made him feel like he was about to hop on a street bike and tear through the city. He slowly zipped the top up as well, feeling it hug his torso inch by inch. The idea of zipping something so snug made him sweat a little. Would it choke him when it reached his throat?

"Wait."

Riku's hand froze at his breastbone, and he released a sigh, all too glad to leave the neck of this leather prison open for now. "What?" he asked.

"Come here."

Curious, Riku stepped just beyond the cylinder, feeling even more exposed now that he wasn't behind the cover of the hologram. Auron picked something gleaming out of a box on the shelf where the body armor was kept, reaching out to show the item to Riku.

It was a strip of leather about an inch wide and long enough to encircle his neck, the entire length covered with slightly curved plates of pure gold. The plates overlapped slightly, the two on the ends specially shaped into halves of a connecting latch, forming a continuous barrier around the wearer's throat. Auron moved forward, lifting his hands to place the collar around Riku's neck, snapping the ends closed. It was snug, uncomfortable only because Riku wasn't used to wearing things that made him feel like he belonged in a BDSM club.

Up close, the smaller scars and wrinkles of Auron's face were prominent. His one good eye was studying the collar, his fingers tracing it to make sure it was fit right, and Riku felt awkward standing so close to the werewolf. He smelt strongly of cinnamon, courtesy of the Goldschlager.

When Auron moved back, Riku released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"If it's okay," Riku said cautiously, "I'd rather leave the zipper on this top down until we go out. I'm afraid I'll stop breathing otherwise."

Auron raised a brow. "Have it your way. But you'd better make sure it's done up when we go out, or the vampire will smell the gold and we'll never see him."

Riku nodded even though he wasn't looking forward to being choked. "Are all gold weapons at risk?"

"They'll be secured so the vampire won't detect them unless he's close enough to smell," Auron said, beginning to kneel down.

Riku saw that, while he had been dressing, the werewolf had unpacked Riku's bag of weapons and had set out a few black holster-type things. These he opened, slipping the appropriate weapons in each of them. Riku thought it was interesting that even the gold-edged knives had sheaths.

"You'll need to practice drawing these under pressure," Auron said as he turned on his knees toward Riku, grabbing the boy's hips and pulling him close. "Hold still."

Riku's shoulders straightened as he felt the werewolf slipping and snapping a few belts and holsters into place. The crossbow went in a holster at his hip, the crossbow bolts in another pouch at his waist. Two of each kind of stake were tucked into special pockets along the back of each of his forearms and at the small of his back. The gold-edged knives were strapped to the outside of each boot. Everything was where he could theoretically draw it quickly.

When Auron was done, Riku felt like a walking arsenal even though he was pretty sure he didn't know how to handle any of the weapons. It was a little liberating feeling so dressed up, his awkwardness beginning to segue into a terrible kind of excitement and fear.

"What are these here for?" he asked, fingering the empty slots in his belt.

Auron rose to his feet with unnatural ease for his age. Regarding Riku's belt, he answered, "For various vials."

"Of what?"

As he moved toward the control panel, Auron didn't respond at first. His fingers flew over the keypad, and the room began to close in on itself, racks and drawers and shelves revolving, sealing. As Riku watched the holograms flicker and die, Auron turned back to face him. "We're done here," he said, voice sharp. His dark gaze traveled over Riku, as if looking for any imperfections, and Riku half expected him to make a dry comment as he seemed to be usually inclined to do, but Auron didn't. He started towards the exit. "Let me take you to the apothecary."

Riku looked up, recognizing the word but not understanding. "What for?" he asked, quickly scooping up his bag and zipping it closed.

"You'll see."

-o-o-

The apothecary was down in a basement level of headquarters, where it was easier to keep the delicate supplies in cool, dark conditions. It was really three rooms joined as one: a storage area, a laboratory, and the main area where the herbalist distributed his wares. Here Auron waited, staring back into the lab area while Riku glanced around curiously.

Bottles and jars lined the walls, sealed into glass-front cabinets reinforced with wire mesh. A counter separated the main room from the back ones, keeping anyone but the herbalist out. The door they'd entered through was a thick metal one, almost like a bank vault but narrower, leaving Riku curious about how likely one of the herbalist's experiments was to explode.

In the meantime, Auron had reached the end of his patience waiting for someone to emerge from the back. He cleared his throat, then barked one word.

"Vexen."

There was a loud crash from the back, followed by bitter cursing. Moments later a tall, thin man dressed in a long white lab coat came hurrying out of the lab, a scowl on his thin lips. Long, straight, ash-blond hair curtained around his face, though it made him seem sinister rather than softening his sharp features.

"You know you're supposed to _wait_ for me to come out from the back, old man."

Auron's face was impassive. "And you're not supposed to be wasting the hunters' time by making them wait. You disconnected the alert light again, didn't you?"

Vexen sneered. "It was distracting me."

Riku actually took a step away from Auron as the man's lip curled, exposing an unnaturally sharp incisor, a soft but guttural growl issuing from his throat.

Vexen looked instantly cowed. "Ah... and just what do you need today?"

"Two full stocks of the w1-0001 vampire antiseptic, hunter's vials. And a refill on this." Auron set his flask on the counter with a muffled bang, making Vexen jump.

"I just filled that for you yesterday, you drunkard," Vexen grumbled, taking the flask anyway.

"More like two weeks ago," Auron returned. "When's the last time you saw the sun?"

"What's _that_?"

The sad part was that Riku couldn't tell if Vexen was kidding or not. But judging by his pasty complexion and watery, pale eyes... he probably wasn't.

He reached into a cabinet and pulled out a large jug, refilling Auron's steel flask with the contents. The strong smell of cinnamon and alcohol nearly made Riku's eyes water. He was grateful when Vexen capped the flask and the jug. Auron grabbed the flask while Vexen was still bent over, putting the jug away.

"Mixing pleasure with business again, hm?" Vexen's smile was thin, cold, and nasty. "Try to make it last this time, will you?"

"Just get the antiseptic before I request a _special_ notation on your annual evaluations," Auron replied flatly.

Vexen dipped into a sarcastic bow before whirling and marching into the back rooms again.

Riku blinked up at Auron, curiosity getting the better of fearful respect. "You two don't like each other much, do you?"

Auron barely glanced at him, but it was enough to make Riku look away with a mumbled apology and a mental vow not to push the issue further. Vexen came back a few moments later with two metal racks, each holding a dozen steel vials the size and shape of a large test tube. It was then that Riku noticed just how long Vexen's sleeves were, nearly concealing his spindly fingers. Something about those hands made him think of spider's legs, the idea making him cringe.

Auron took the contents of one rack, tucking them into inner pockets in his jacket. Riku followed suit without being told, slipping his share securely into the loops on his belt, though he cracked the last one open and sniffed. He regretted it instantly. It stunk with a riot of odors, all familiar and yet unnamable because they were all blended together.

"Ugh! What's _in_ this stuff!" He held the vial away from his nose.

Vexen looked oddly pleased, even though Riku had basically just insulted his work. "Base of pure water, with star anise, garlic, spearmint, lemon oil, ginger, rose hips, mandragora, duruno root, zelna ash..."

Riku held up both hands, looking a little overwhelmed. "Whoa, whoa. What kind of root? And what kind of ash?"

Vexen rolled his eyes. "Either they're not native to your world, or you're just ignorant of the herbal arts. Suffice it to say, the combination of those essences creates the perfect antiviral agent for destroying a _Homo sanguisapien w1-0001_ infection. As long as it's administered with all due haste."

"In other words," Auron clarified, "you drink it and clean any wounds you get with it. It tastes worse than it smells, but it will work as long as you don't screw around."

"You just hate it because it doesn't taste like that swill you drink off-hours."

For a moment, Riku thought Auron would throttle the herbalist, even though the werewolf showed no change in expression or body language. He just felt the tension. Obviously, there was something long-standing at work here.

"Come on, we've got other things to do."

And with that, Auron left briskly, Riku hurrying behind to keep up. He swore he could hear Vexen muttering as the door hissed shut.

-o-o-

The briefing room was about the same size as the atrium, sliding partitions available to divide the space into quadrants. In each quadrant was a large device, roughly shaped like a squat cone with a rounded top. A ledge ran around each cone toward the middle, laden with keypads... some with written characters Riku didn't recognize. Small monitors peppered the cone's sides above the keypads, and five chairs ringed each device. Four men—most likely hunters from their body armor and the weapons they carried—were seated at one of the devices, glancing up at an image projected from the tip into the air.

A hologram.

Auron sat down at one of the unused holographic projectors, gesturing at the empty seat beside him before punching in something on the keypad. Riku slid into the seat, glancing up just in time to see another hologram appear.

Sora...

He looked young and afraid, wide blue eyes begging for help, to be cuddled and kissed and adored. Riku shot Auron a dirty look, wondering what the point was in showing him the very thing he'd lost so horribly.

"Things aren't always what they seem," Auron said flatly. "Look at his clothes."

Black mesh shirt, boots, thigh high stockings... a _skirt_...

"Is... is that Sorah?"

Auron nodded grimly. "You see how easy it is to be taken in by an innocent face, even if it's only a mask." He touched a key.

The image changed.

Now Sorah's eyes were golden, sunken and shadowed above a pair of bloodless, snarling lips. Riku couldn't stop staring at those sharp fangs, sick with certainty that Sora had already felt them at least once.

"Vampires possess an ability called 'glamour.' It's basically a form of hypnotic influence through eye contact, but it's not the eyes that have the power. It's a psychic power, which means even if you put out a vampire's eyes, they can still glamour you. It's just more difficult. Combine their glamour with their... unnatural beauty... and they can seduce any prey they want." Auron didn't look up at the image of Sorah as he spoke, focusing instead on the keypad in front of him. "But even that's not his true form."

Another touch of a key, and the image changed again. Riku's stomach twisted in disgust.

Sorah's face had shifted again, a blazing amber glow shining from the deep pits of his eyes. His eyebrows were gone, his forehead slightly ridged and his prominent browbone adding to the shadows around his eyes. More ridges ran down his cheeks, sharpening his features into a demonic mask. It was like watching a mountain lion bristle in agitation, and an instinctive fear nagged at the back of Riku's mind.

"Creatures like Sorah are part of the reason that humans instinctively fear the dark." Auron switched the image back one level, leaving the vampire with just the fangs and golden eyes. "The virus that created them originally mutated from a species of demon known as a sanguinide... a blood elemental. A sanguinide infected a human eons ago, and thus were born the vampires." The lycan's eye narrowed. "They're just another form of the black plague, only worse."

Riku had to swallow twice just to get the question out, though he feared he already knew the answer. "If Sora dies, then this is what will happen to him?"

Auron didn't answer. He didn't need to. He pressed a key and the image of Sorah disappeared, only to be replaced by another.

For a moment, Riku honestly thought he would throw up.

His own face, gray with death, stared back at him with milky white eyes. The image's teeth were jagged, worn down into sharp, uneven points. Daggerlike, dark nails sprouted from curled fingertips. If not for the horrible changes, the other Riku, clad in skimpy leather that he somehow wore with impossible grace... would be unbearably sexy.

"... the zombie..."

"Revenant, actually."

Riku stared at Auron. "I thought you called him a zombie..."

"I didn't think you'd be remembering anyway. There was no point in explaining the difference." Auron's voice was completely impassive.

Riku clenched his fists at his side, resisting the urge to snarl at the older man. "So what _is_ the difference?"

Auron grunted. "Zombies are like the ones from the movies. Slow, shambling, clumsy, but strong. Their flesh rots no matter how much they feed. They're mindless. That's what happens if a person dies after being severely weakened, usually as the result of multiple untreated feedings by a vampire, or the bite of a revenant or another zombie. Revenants, on the other hand, are somewhere between a zombie and a vampire. Their flesh is gray but remains intact as long as they feed. They often possess some of the physical powers of their sire vampire, such as the ability to climb walls or move at inhuman speeds. And the higher functioning revenants sometimes retain fragments of their human personality. They have moments where they can think and act for themselves, though they're still slaves to their creators."

To be trapped in your own body... an undead, cannibal shell... and still think like a human? Riku couldn't help feeling a twinge of pity for his otherworldly "twin."

"Revenants are created when a vampire kills a human in a single feeding, without sharing their own blood. The virus shocks the body into changing with minimal cellular decay."

Auron tapped a few more keys as Riku glanced away, unnerved, focusing instead on the other projector in use. The image the hunters were discussing was of a young woman about Riku's age, cute and innocuous. With her straight blond hair and preppy clothes, she could be one of the popular girls from Riku and Sora's old high school.

Until her body sagged backwards slightly like a puppet, and huge slimy tentacles burst from her mouth and eyes, lashing at the air.

Riku clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Are you paying attention?" Auron snapped.

NOW Riku was paying attention to their projector, after that little show!

Auron glanced over at the monster the other hunters were observing, his expression impassive. "Gragmor. A few people on your world must've been molested by them. Where do you think those tentacle monsters in your animation come from?"

Riku would never be able to watch tentacle hentai with Tidus again.

"Things like that walk amongst normal humans all the time. Some of them are smart enough to be discreet, if they attack humans at all. But then you have creatures like Sorah and Rikuh, who do things like this."

The image of Rikuh changed, expanding into a portion of a city view. As Riku watched, a young couple ran down the street, clearly fleeing in terror. Moments later, he saw what was chasing them: Sorah and Rikuh, the vampire moving with such easy grace it seemed like he was floating, the revenant racing along like a bipedal hunting cat beside his master. The human girl's high heels slipped on the rainy street and she fell, her boyfriend's momentum carrying him several steps past her before he turned and tried to go back for her. Sorah leaped right over the girl's prone form—why would he skip such an easy target?—and landed on the much bigger man, his reedy body taking down the startled teenager with ease. His prey nearly dwarfed him, and yet the youth was frozen in place, staring up into Sorah's eyes with a slack-jawed expression.

Sorah smiled as the girl started to scream, though Riku could hear no sound from the image. He could see her mouth open as the revenant pinned her down and tore her shirt away, her body bucking in agony as the creature sank its teeth into... into...

Riku coughed reflexively, feeling his gorge rising, his stomach contracting in sympathetic pain. But there was nothing he could do for the girl in the image. She was already long dead, her organs devoured by this monster with his face. He focused on Sorah instead, knowing he had to burn that image into his mind, to be ready for it when he was confronted by the real thing.

Still, it wasn't enough to stop him from clutching his throat as Sorah bit down into the carotid artery of his victim, drawing blood like a human leech.

"Now you understand why we hunt them."

Riku nodded, slowly releasing his throat once Auron turned off the projector. "I don't want Sora to end up like that. And I know he wouldn't want it, either."

"The price of eternity is always too much to pay. Some people just don't realize it. If you'd rather die than become undead... well, you're better off than you think." Auron's gaze was steely as he finally faced Riku. "When we find your Sora, if he's become like them, do you really think you can kill him? I need to know, because if you can't, then I'll do the job myself."

"There's no chance of him being like he was before? I mean, when he was human." Riku kicked himself mentally. He was talking like it was already too late and that they knew for a fact that Sora had been turned.

"Fledglings take on aspects of their sires. Sorah's insane. There's a good chance that if he turns your Sora, then Sora will be insane, too. He probably wouldn't recognize you as anything but food."

That hurt.

"... I owe it to Sora to save him," Riku whispered, hanging his head. "Even if that means killing him with my own hands."

Auron's expression never changed, that hazel eye revealing nothing. "We'll see."

Riku was relieved when they had an interruption. He could have sworn he felt the presence before he saw the newcomer, but he didn't know what it was until a deep, soothing voice came from behind them.

"Auron."

Even though Riku hadn't been expecting to run into anything as impressive as the British demon from before, or that Gragmor hologram, his eyes still widened slightly when he studied the man standing there. And Riku got to see Auron lose a little bit of his composure for the second time (after that snarling at Vexen). Auron's lips thinned as he visibly tensed, automatically turning to face who had spoken to him.

"Ansem," the werewolf returned, hollow-voiced.

The man named Ansem was dressed dark and sheik in a suit that Riku thought looked like a frock coat with a modern flair, a strange blend of Victorian and Oriental with its black and gold design. His long, glossy white hair, which starkly contrasted with his dark skin, was pulled back, and soft bangs framed his face, falling over slim spectacles and fiery orange eyes. He seemed to be middle-aged, but there was no way for Riku to tell with all of these supernatural people wandering around.

He did know, however, that this man had to be one of Auron's superiors, judging from how he had reacted.

Ansem's searing gaze flitted from Auron to Riku, a fine white eyebrow lifting as he examined Riku with interest, eyes lingering on his open neck and the collar beneath. A slow smirk began to pull at the man's lips as he looked back to Auron.

"I will be needing that status report now," he said, all business, though Riku sensed an underlying amusement about him.

Auron glanced at Riku pointedly, and, deciding to be polite, Riku turned away from them, choosing to watch some of the people moving through the briefing room. The group of hunters were still watching footage, but not of the Gragmor anymore. This time the scene showed a beautiful, blue-skinned woman encasing unsuspecting people in ice.

As Auron and Ansem spoke in low tones behind him, and as Riku watched the odd footage, fascinated, something caught his eye.

A kid was hovering nearby, also watching the hologram. He was young, perhaps fourteen or fifteen, with wild blond hair and bright blue eyes, and his round face and innocent look reminded Riku too, _too_ much of Sora. This wasn't like Zell had reminded him of Sora, no, the blond boy was like a figure of his past unexpectedly thrown into the most unlikely of places. It was Sora, but... not. The resemblance was uncanny.

Very uncanny.

He watched the boy move through the room, lingering near another projector, which had just been activated by a new group of people. He looked so out of place in his casual, skater-style white outfit and typical teenage accessories. He was really cute, actually...

Almost as if picking up on his thoughts, the boy lifted his face, slowly turning to glance in Riku's direction.

The boy's eyes locked onto his for that one moment, a knowing depth to that seemingly innocent blue, and Riku's heart gave a small quiver. They stared at each other, just a brief exchange, but Riku felt as if he'd gone numb. Even when the blond boy looked away, casual and hiding a smile, Riku had to watch him.

Auron's voice jolted him from his little trance.

"We're going," the werewolf said into his ear as he suddenly brushed past.

Riku hesitated, glancing from Auron to Ansem, who was actually approaching the blond boy across the room. Letting his gaze linger a last moment on the Sora look-alike, Riku hurried after Auron, unable to stop the question from spilling forth.

"Who's that blond kid?"

"Ansem's adopted son," Auron answered curtly, moving ahead. He breezed into the hallway, turning down a new corridor. "I know, the similarity is there."

Riku knew that Auron wasn't talking about Ansem and the blond boy, but the boy and Sora. Or, in Auron's case, Sorah. "So was that your superior?" Riku asked, remembering how Ansem had asked for a status report.

"The Metatron figure," Auron said, leading him past a several sealed doors.

"And where are we going?" Riku wondered, eyeing several people and... demons and creatures, some equipped with weapons, some stripped down as if ready for a wrestling match.

"To practice. You need to get situated with your weapons."

Geh.

Riku placed a hand on the crossbow at his waist. "Is this thing hard to handle?"

This time Auron glanced at him. "You'll have to learn how to fold and unfold it. It's titanium frame and light, but still takes some skill to shoot it efficiently. It's a matter of flipping the latch, unfolding the stock, snapping open the bow, and loading it."

Riku pursed his lips, picturing it in his mind. "Sounds easy."

"A good hunter can undo it and load it in under three seconds."

Okay, so maybe not as easy as it sounded. Riku lifted his fingers past his open armor, nervously touching his leather and gold collar as he followed behind Auron. He thought of what he was going up against with just the weapons he had on him, and the anxiety that filled him was unwelcome. He needed to focus.

He could do this.

He _had_ to do this. No matter what was being risked—his composure, his pride, his life—all of it was worth throwing away. He had to be strong if he wanted to get through this. He had to be strong if he ever wanted to see Sora again.

Tightening his jaw, he drew in a deep breath and lifted his chin.

The zipper made a thick sound when he pulled it the rest of the way up.

-o-o-

"Fuck!"

Riku's voice sounded only slightly hollow through the speakers; the Organization had excellent audio equipment. The video was just as crisp, the image in the monitors showing even the tension in the young man's body as he refolded the crossbow for another attempt. Auron retrieved the practice bolt from the wall where it was embedded, two feet from the edge of the target.

"Try again."

The werewolf stood at Riku's flank, watching over his shoulder as Riku flipped open the weapon, snapped it to ready position, loaded it, and fired at the target. It hit the far edge this time.

"Twenty seconds," Auron informed him. "And your aim is still terrible."

"I'm _trying_," Riku huffed, his face red and his brow wet with nervous sweat. "I've never done this before."

"And you'll try again," Auron replied. "You have your motivation. Use it."

Ansem watched yet another failed attempt before he turned toward the long granite-topped desk, his fiery eyes focused on the shadowed figure sitting in the high-backed leather chair behind it. "You know the boy will most likely die."

There was a nod from the shadow, but no words.

"And you want his demise on Auron's conscience? On your own?"

The Metatron had questioned his master. But he had done so for years; he knew his counsel and concerns were valued.

"This is war. This is chess. You've known this for many years, Ansem. In any game of strategy, pieces must be sacrificed for the greater good. Sorah has made his move and struck his timer. Now it is our turn." The master's voice was soft and smooth and low, honey made into sound and words.

"If he knew the truth, he would reject our help. Perhaps even give up on his lost lover."

From somewhere in the dark came a calm smile that Ansem couldn't see, but the power in it and the one who formed it made him shiver. Even after all those years, his master could still unnerve him, even through their deceptions. They had everyone fooled. Ansem could almost believe the lie himself, if not for what he alone could see in those now hidden eyes.

"He will not sacrifice his love to the dark," the master said softly, with such conviction that Ansem suddenly believed him. "Even at the cost of his soul."

The master of the Organization leaned forward, the dim light of the monitors gleaming off his golden hair. His smile still curved his childish, soft face... made his eyes shine with quiet knowledge far too old for his apparent youth.

"But he is still a pawn," Roxas chuckled. "Perhaps he needs a rook, a bishop, and a knight to back him up, hmm?"

* * *

_to be continued..._


	3. Ch 2: nine seconds

Author Notes:

Happy Halloween!

Once again, the technical details about the supernatural creatures come from the authors, not any preexisting text, so please treat it as such. Plagiarism is a no-no.

* * *

**Chapter Two – Nine Seconds**

-o-o-

Sora jolted out of his sleep, and for just a moment, the rush of adrenaline and the racing of his heart and the tired ache of his bones felt familiar. Normal. How many times in the past had he been startled awake in his own room and bed, or at Riku's place after a round under the sheets, or even in the car as Tidus drove him home from work?

The metallic clank at his ankle reminded him where he really was and what had happened the last time he had woken up this way. A deep chill had permeated and seized his naked body, and he felt more hollow and ill than ever, even after the zombie's kindness from before. How much time had passed since then? When had he fallen asleep?

Sora dared to lift his head, his thoughts scattering under the sharp throbbing in his skull and the vertigo that swept through him, pinpricks of darkness inching into his eyesight and threatening to pull him back into unconsciousness. He squinted through the darkness of both his mind and the room to study his surroundings again. Circular room, tapestries, wrought-iron bed posts. Still in the same place, the same nightmare.

But he was alone. Or seemed to be. Something told him he was alone, but he let his gaze linger on the shadows of the room, searching for any signs of movement in case he was wrong. Nothing stirred, and he allowed himself to relax a fraction, his fear actually allowing his mind to focus on his situation, starting with panicked questions. When had the zombie left? And when would he be back? Worse yet—the _vampire_?

_Too soon._

That was enough for him to turn to risky notions, his desperation spurring him into action while he still had a chance. He pulled himself into a sitting position, trying to ignore the intense pain that flared up his backside and the other places the vampire had _loved_. Clenching his jaw to stifle an anguished sound, Sora blinked past fresh tears and turned himself to study his shackle up close. He wasn't going to stick around to see what else they had planned for him.

He knew without a doubt that this was going to be dangerous, but waiting helplessly to be that monster's feast—or worse—was even more terrifying than the thought of what might happen to him if he were caught trying to escape.

The metal of the manacle was thick steel, skillfully made with no visible imperfections, and it was locked tight enough for him to feel discomfort when he tried to twist his ankle. An unhealthy ring of pink shadowed his skin from the metal grazing against him again and again, but that slight burn was nothing compared to what he was already feeling. He lifted the long chain, scanning the links closest to him, knowing he didn't have time to check every single one for flaws, but they were just as perfectly crafted. Trying not to despair as he thought about not being able to get out of this damn thing, he turned his gaze to the dim room again, certain that there had to be something here he could use.

He passed over the armchairs and the eyehook in the middle of the floor and scanned the room's decorations, his eyes landing on the objects closest to him. There. The candleholders!

He was huddled on the floor next to the nearest one before his sickness could get to him again, his legs and the tips of his fingers numb from weakness or perhaps the cold. It took a lot of effort just to keep his arms up to push against the candleholder, testing its strength. It was bolted to the floor, also made of steel, so maybe it would hold up against his shackle.

The base of the holder was designed so that the scrollwork stuck up, slightly curled but just straight enough for him to slip between his ankle and the cuff of his shackle. Sora shifted, leaning his weight on his side, twisting his ankle and the cuff and putting pressure on the metal, and silently screamed, praying for it to stretch or break or _something_ to let him free. The arch of the scrollwork only dug into his ankle, pushing into skin and bone, and the shackle remained unyielding.

Holding in his tears, Sora turned onto his other side, the song of the shifting chain almost mocking him as he tugged frantically at his ankle, his shaky breaths the only other sound in the room aside from the clank and scraping of steel. It bit into him as he continued to work, the fierce burn of his ankle only making him panic more. He only stopped when he noticed that the metal had grazed him raw until he bled.

The scrollwork was too thick to try picking the shackle's lock. Giving up on that idea, he pulled his injured ankle free from the holder and sat back to glance around again. There was nothing near the eyehook that he could use to try pulling it free, but... The bedposts looked sturdy.

Sora's knees trembled when he got to his feet, his ankle screaming in protest as the shackle settled around the raw skin. He clambered back onto the bed and gave the left post a strong jerk. It didn't budge. Good. It took some maneuvering, but he managed to wrap the chain around the post just once so that he could sit on the bed and pull at the chain with his hands without putting too much pressure on the ankle itself. Lying back, he kept his grip on the chain firm, pushing his good foot against the post and using his entire weight against it. His muscles cried out at the exertion, but he kept pulling, hands throbbing, shoulders threatening to dislocate, tears soaking his hair and a sob caught in his hoarse throat.

The taut chain wouldn't yield, but he kept trying anyway, and the pain lancing up his backside grew so severe that he couldn't hold back a small whimper, every muscle in his body trembling, struggling, red and white flashing behind his eyes at the intense strain. His body gave way first, his fingernails cutting crescents into his palms as the chain slipped from his sweaty hands, and he went crashing onto the plush mattress amongst the linen sheets and velvet comforter.

For a long moment he just lay there, choking out shuddery sobs, the room spinning around him even with his eyes clenched shut. Even when he managed to calm himself a little, his breath came raggedly and he could hardly think through his muddled, paranoid state of mind. His entire body was speaking to him, limbs weakened and quivering from his efforts, his headache pounding full force along with the searing pain of his ankle and other places he didn't want to think about.

Every part of him protested as he sat back up, a violent shiver running through him as his world lurched and icy fingers of sickness clamped around his stomach, making him groan.

Gritting his teeth, he slipped his eyes open a fraction, staring at the angry red of his ankle and the cold, gray shackle that kept him in checkmate. The chain rested harmlessly in front of him, a sleeping steel snake. He felt like it was mocking him.

His gaze traveled upward, noticing that when he had slipped, somehow the tied curtains on the left post had come undone and now hung freely. It was a fleeting thought, but it occurred to him that, even if he could probably rip those free and fashion them into a rope, he couldn't reach the beams overhead to hang himself. Everything in the room seemed to be bolted down, so there was nothing to use as a weapon. Just curtains, just sheets. The vampire had taken a lot of precautions. Even then, Sora was too much of a coward to do anything to himself.

God, he had to get out of here!

Gathering his resolve, he swallowed back his pain and shakily got to his knees, wrapping the chain back around the post to try again. His hands stung as he grabbed hold of the steel links and drew them taut, but he let his fear take control, letting it give him focus past his pain.

He felt the rush of adrenaline and the chill creeping up his spine long before he noticed he was no longer alone, his mind entirely focused on his task. It was only when the attack on his preternatural senses suddenly spiked did he drop the chain with a startled cry, whirling toward the door.

Zombie Riku watched him impassively, seemingly unconcerned with Sora's escape attempts. Sora gulped, sinking back onto the bed, his skin prickling with gooseflesh. Would the undead creature lunge at him now, turning him into a quick, messy meal like he had with Paopu?

His heart leaped into his throat as the zombie took a slow step toward him, blank white eyes boring into Sora's soul.

-o-o-

Riku was exhausted. Three hours training with weapons he'd never touched before in his life had left his limbs feeling lethargic, but he didn't dare mention it to Auron, who had only paused the training in the first place because he had been called away momentarily. Riku hadn't seen the messenger, but it must have been important.

Waiting for Auron inside the training room, Riku slouched against the wall, his head tilted back, eyes raised to the foreign ceiling, as he let the ache settle in his tired muscles. From his position, he could hear Auron speaking to someone, but the werewolf's words were indistinguishable. Riku only knew when he spoke because of his baritone voice, like the rise of thunder, deep and rumbling.

Now that he had a moment to himself, Riku could feel his heart racing. Perspiration had dampened his hair, making it stick to the sides of his clothed neck. He felt uncomfortable, partly because of his attire still, but mostly because he knew now how bad his situation was. He was horrible. He could hardly do anything Auron told him to. What hope he'd had before for saving Sora had been worn away to a tiny sliver that he hardly recognized. He wasn't going to be able to help Sora. Auron could. But Riku? Riku could hardly fire a crossbow, let alone save the life of someone he loved.

Nine seconds. He had managed to prep and shoot his crossbow in just nine seconds, his fastest time, but he hadn't even hit the target. He couldn't even imagine a moving target or doing all this under the stress of whatever horrors he was likely to face out there. Fuck. He had hardly touched his other weapons, so who knew how he'd handled _them_.

He released a long sigh, letting his eyes drift closed.

"Riku."

They fluttered back open and shifted to the doorway. Auron was there, his dark eye narrowed, regarding him with that impassive look of his again. Riku had a feeling that he was about to hear something good for once.

"We'll continue this later. We're needed in the briefing room. There's been a change of plans."

Riku frowned. "What kind of change?"

"Orders from the superior," Auron replied, nodding to Riku's discarded backpack on the ground. "Get your stuff. We're getting a bite to eat first."

The notion of food made Riku's stomach churn. He hadn't eaten since before Sora's house, and all of that had been chucked onto the carpet of Sora's bedroom. Now, even though he had been starving before arriving at HQ, he wasn't sure he could keep anything down.

Still, he nodded and obediently picked up his folded crossbow, trying to figure out where to holster it. He heard the shuffle of feet as Auron approached him and took the collapsed weapon and silently slid it into a holster at Riku's hip. Riku murmured a thanks and picked up his backpack, clenching his jaw as his arms screamed in protest. Shouldering his bag, he brushed past Auron and left the room, not meeting his face. He could feel the werewolf staring at his back.

The man named Ansem was in the hallway waiting, and Riku remembered who Auron had likened the man to. He was the so-called Metatron figure, and Riku wasn't surprised that he had been the one to inform Auron—whatever the new orders had been. If anything, Ansem's involvement filled Riku with a little bit more hope. After all, for someone so seemingly important to keep coming to Auron personally, it meant that either Auron really was a legend like Zell had said, or this mission was extremely important to the Organization. Or at least important to Auron's boss, whoever he was. But whatever the case was, both were good signs. The Organization wouldn't send anyone except the best unless it wanted to botch the mission, right? Maybe this would work after all. They'd get Sora back.

Ansem's orange eyes narrowed a fraction behind his spectacles, and Riku realized he had been staring. As he heard Auron pause behind him, Riku murmured an apology and looked away, starting to continue down the hallway without prompting. When they had first arrived here at headquarters, he had seen a glimpse of a food court on the opposite side of the atrium, so that was where he headed.

"Auron," he heard Ansem say in a smooth, direct tone, "fifteen minutes."

Auron didn't reply. Riku heard the werewolf fall into step behind him, but Auron's legs were longer and he soon took the lead, leaving Riku to his thoughts as he trailed behind him. When they were out of Ansem's hearing range—or so Riku hoped—Riku spoke up.

"So what are these new orders?" he asked, staring at the man's back.

Auron cast a glance over his shoulder. "The boss decided to take control of the situation. He's sending some hunters with us to back me up. It's an order, so I can't not accept them."

"And that's bad?" Riku asked. "How many of them?"

"Three," Auron replied curtly. "I'm used to working alone now. I don't like being responsible for other people."

_Then what about me? _Riku wondered, but he bit his tongue, deciding not to ask. He already knew he was going to be a major burden. Remembering the revenant with his face, with the pale skin and blue lips and milky eyes, tearing its sharp teeth into that girl's stomach in the video, Riku shivered. That could be him.

Nine seconds to load and fire his cross bow? He'd be dead within two.

Once they reached the circular main area of headquarters, Auron began to walk at a brisk pace, Riku having to take three steps for every two of his. He wasn't used to being the one trying to keep up.

The food court area was where he had thought it was, and Auron led him right into the sea of tables, passing groups of all kinds of creatures—humanlike and non, more of the latter. Riku tried not to stare, he really did, but he found his gaze lingering several times. Now that he wasn't as overwhelmed as when he had first arrived here, he wanted to see everything.

This part of headquarters was enormous, probably eight times bigger or more than the large eating area in the university center back home. It had a fantastic view of the atrium where he had met Zell, and from this angle he could see the bridge from earlier, a large willow tree, and a rock structure with a working waterfall. Too bad Ansem had only given them fifteen minutes, because Riku would have liked to have rested at a table in front of the peaceful scenery. But there was no time for resting, was there?

Beyond the rows and rows of tables and chairs (some larger, some smaller, some just designed weirdly) were the actual different stations for food, as big as restaurants themselves. Some of the places looked familiar—like a Subwayand there was even a McDonald's—but there were other places with titles in foreign languages that didn't even look human. Riku was curious as to what they served there, but as he glanced around, he spotted something that made him think twice.

It was a demonic man, relatively attractive with paper-white skin and long red hair, but he had thick black horns that curved up behind his skull a good eighteen inches or so, and slender, fuzzy auburn ears that extended outward like an angry cat's, one of them pierced with a dangling cross. What made Riku hesitate, however, was what was on the tabletop in front of the man. His fingernails—striped claws—were holding down a small, squirming animal that looked like a mix between a rabbit and a squirrel, with white floppy ears and a brown bushy tail. Riku watched as a dagger-like claw sunk into the screeching creature's skull, making its cries turn shrill, before they ceased completely. Then the man picked up the still twitching animal, swiped a black tongue over its punctured skull, and then tore into its neck with a row of sharp fangs.

Stomach churning, Riku changed his mind and glanced away, not wanting to know what was being served in those strange restaurants. Some more of the less humanlike beings, like the tall British demon Riku had run into earlier, were also eating live food. Getting queasy, he stuck close to Auron's back, following him to the less suspicious food chains. Auron led him to a smaller kitchen area, almost like a buffet, with normal looking food and somewhat normal looking patrons around him, though Riku knew he'd never be able to tell the difference with most of them. Even Auron looked completely human, after all. Then again, a werewolf was pretty normal compared to some of _these_ freaks.

"Stay with me," Auron warned, moving into one of the long lines for the buffet. Almost immediately, someone got into line behind Riku, who listened to Auron and stuck close to his side.

The person behind him was androgynous, but s/he gave Riku a good twice over before focusing on his ID and smirking at it. Riku wasn't sure if it was because he was wearing hunter gear and was so obviously not a hunter, or if it was because he was just human, or what. Trying not to give off the impression he was uneasy, he forced himself to calm down and not look around as much.

The line moved forward, and Riku snuck a glance at one of the tables nearby. A group of gorgeous men and women were crowded around the small circular table, some of the girls draped on each other's laps, some of the boys touching each other more than just casually, more than one of them with girls straddling them or vice versa. None of them were eating anything, though a few glasses of colorful drinks sat in front of them. They looked relatively human, but they all gave off such an alluring, sexual air that Riku could tell there was more to them.

One of the slender males, dark-haired and almost feline, caught Riku's gaze and held it, a slow, sultry smile pulling across his lips. Then, almost simultaneously, the entire group of beautiful creatures looked at Riku, appreciatively watching him, sharp eyes roving over his figure, red tongues darting out to wet their lips. Riku was captivated by their inviting expressions, a flush coming to his cheeks as he kept staring at them, unable to tear his gaze away, their eyes burning into him and making him shift uncomfortably against the tightness of his suit. There was something sweet smelling in the air, overriding his other senses except for the sudden racing of his pulse.

"Riku."

Auron's voice was firm, managing to attract his attention for a split second, but then he was back to staring at the table of temptation. The first boy who had caught his gaze was now beckoning him with a curled finger, his yellow eyes drawing him into a warm, dreamlike daze, sending him dark little promises of unending pleasure, and before Riku realized what he was doing, he was taking a step towards them.

A strong hand grabbed his arm and yanked him back, and a steaming bowl of _something_ was shoved under his nose. When Riku breathed in, it was to the acrid, tangy scent of garlic and ginger on top of other heavy spices, which immediately overpowered the sweet, appealing scent from before.

Riku's mind cleared, and he blinked a few times, glancing from the bowl to Auron in confusion. It was kimchee. No wonder it smelled so spicy. Auron gave him a look of admonition before pulling the bowl away again.

"You were smelling pheromones," the werewolf said, by way of explanation. "They can tell you're human."

"Who?" Riku asked, starting to glance back at the table of gorgeous people. Auron's large hand caught his chin and turned his face away before he could see them again, and Riku brushed his arm away, getting the hint not to look.

"Succubae and incubi," Auron said. "Every one of them. They feed off sexual energy, and an attractive human like you is rare around headquarters. You already stand out, so don't encourage it by leaving yourself open to their tricks."

Resisting the silent lure, Riku nodded and swallowed against his dry throat, and didn't once look back at them. His suit felt so stifling now, the neck feeling tight, so he unzipped it to a more comfortable position, baring most of his neck. He didn't dare take off the leather and gold collar.

Auron continued on down the line, and Riku followed, eyeing the kimchee Auron was carrying. Was that for him?

"What are you going to eat?" he asked.

As if to answer, Auron paused in front of one of the cooks, having passed most of the Asian food and now coming across more American things. "Medium rare steak," he told the person behind the protective glass. "And get the kid some chicken and dumplings. And some of those." He gestured with his free hand to some steamed vegetables.

Vitamins and protein. A healthy meal. Riku realized then that he hadn't eaten in over ten hours.

He was silent as he was handed a warm plate a minute later, and the aroma of poultry and seasonings made his stomach growl. Auron, with his bowl of Korean food and a small plate of nearly bleeding steak, broke out of the line to head towards what looked like a small java shop. Riku tagged along close behind him, avoiding eye contact with everyone.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"You need caffeine," Auron announced as he stepped up to the counter. "One mochaccino," he said, and the frazzled girl at the machine went right to work, expertly mixing and pouring, far faster and neater than any Starbucks employee.

Wondering what Auron was going to drink, Riku asked, "What about you?"

"Vexen took care of that."

Riku frowned, confused, but then he remembered how the apothecary had refilled Auron's flask of Goldschlager. Auron was going to eat a bloody steak and a bowl of spicy kimchee with _Goldschlager_? Gehhh. The man's stomach must have been made of steel or something. Riku wrinkled his nose.

After glancing at him, Auron formed a small, amused smirk. "Come on," he said, and then nodded to Riku's ready mochaccino. "Let's go. We have five minutes left."

Riku knew when not to linger. He took the coffee and, before he could even think about thanking the girl, he was sweeping out of the tiny shop right at Auron's heels, back into the main dining hall. Though he wondered, he didn't ask why Auron didn't have to pay for anything, or even if they were allowed to take food outside the court or into the place they were heading.

All he did was pick up his pace, cradling his plate of normal food, and matched his strides with Auron's, falling into step beside him.

-o-o-

The zombie hadn't attacked.

Sora had backed all the way up against the headboard and curled up, shaking, with his face buried against his knees, and waited for his punishment for trying to escape, but it had not come. The Riku had stopped near the bedside. Besides the slight trembling of Sora's chains, only the sound of the zombie's rattling breath filled the air, but it wasn't close enough to send Sora into another panic.

Was he waiting for something? Sora was too scared to look, but, with skin-crawling certainty, he could _feel_ the zombie studying him, though he wasn't sure how he could be certain about anything anymore. Working up his nerve, Sora lifted his face, glancing over the curve of his knee at the creature, who really was watching him.

The zombie knelt beside the bed, the intense gaze a bit less intimidating with the pale creature now lower than Sora. He cocked his head slightly, giving him an oddly bird-like quality, but said nothing.

"Wh—What do you want now?" Sora quivered, trying to act casual despite being on the brink of pissing himself in fear.

The zombie cocked his head the other way now, blinking once slowly as if he was forcing the action out of a need to seem "normal." His lips barely parted, though Sora still got an uncomfortable glimpse of those sharp teeth.

"...hurt...?"

Sora couldn't understand what he meant, until he noticed how the Riku's gaze lowered from his face to his hands. Angry red marks shaped like chain links burned across his palms. Sora swallowed, closing his hands into loose fists to hide the marks.

"I... I just..." Just what? Sora couldn't even begin to explain his way out of this. He could hardly even think straight. Why wasn't the zombie mad? If he could talk, then wasn't he smart enough to know what Sora had been doing?

Or... maybe he wasn't?

Swallowing against his hoarse throat, Sora decided to test him. "Where do you go...when you're not watching me?" he asked tentatively, managing to keep his voice from shaking.

The Riku lifted those blank eyes again, head still tilted, blue lips parted, and when he spoke, it sounded so forced, as if it really did take all of his effort just to utter something coherent for Sora. "...hunt..."

To hunt. At least Sora knew he wasn't being saved for food for the zombie, and that he zombie was actually willing to answer questions.

And there was one question that Sora had to know the answer to, no matter how sick the thought of it made him feel.

"...he's really going to turn me, isn't he? And he'll never keep his promise to leave Riku alone, either..."

The zombie's eyes changed ever so slightly, placid blankness becoming... grief? Sora's heart clenched for reasons he couldn't name.

Remorse? From this inhuman being?

"...yes..."

Remorse and honesty.

Sora's arms tightened around his knees. An indescribable sadness welled up inside of him, overcoming his fear, but for some reason, he couldn't cry about it. So now he knew his situation for sure. He knew he was definitely not getting out of this alive if he stayed here. He also knew he was probably going to suffer even more before it happened, and that if he ever saw home or Riku again, it'd be under circumstances that he was too terrified to think about.

But most importantly, he knew that his vampire twin wanted him to cry about it. Cry and beg and writhe and entertain him. At least Sora could resist that, keep struggling, or keep planning on an escape somehow...

The zombie's heavy breathing drew closer, and Sora glanced up again, noticing that he had brought in a tray with him and had set it on the floor. The black steel tray carried a plate of food, a glass of what looked like water, and also a strip of white cotton. Sora understood the food and water, but what was the other thing for?

That was when he noticed that the zombie had gotten _too _close and was studying Sora's raw ankle. Sora automatically drew his leg away, shooting the Riku a scared look, but almost at the same time, he realized that despite what the zombie had done and what he a monster he was, he was here to _help_ Sora, to take care of him. And if those subtle signs of humanity inside of the zombie were real, then maybe Sora could use him.

Gentle, cold hands touched Sora's ankle, lightly feeling the edges of the raw spots. Sora hissed, instinctively jerking away again, only to feel himself caught in the zombie's grip.

"... need... padding..."

The Riku removed a tiny key on a cord from around his neck.

"... will... help... but... not... try... escape..."

Then, amazingly, he unlocked the shackle. The sudden loss of the grinding weight against his skin was almost unreal.

"... if... try... run... then... will... break... legs..."

And with that warning, the zombie began to wrap the wide strip of soft cloth around the raw spot on Sora's ankle. Oh, so that's what it had been for. Keeping the threat in mind, Sora sat there, tense and holding his breath, his heart racing as he watched the zombie work. His cold fingers were careful and agile, hardly agitating the hurt ankle, and Sora wondered how the monster that had killed Paopu could actually be so unexpectedly kind and gentle.

His gaze flitted over to the open shackle. He wasn't looking forward to wearing it again, but after the speed and strength he'd seen the zombie display before killing Paopu, he knew he wasn't lying when he'd said he'd break his legs if he tried to run. And if Sora did have any hope for escape, he'd need those legs.

At least now he knew who carried the key. Maybe the vampire trusted his servant a little too much.

He began to relax, still not trusting the zombie completely, but appreciating his care. When the cloth was on and secured, those pale hands went to pick up the shackle to replace it around Sora's ankle.

"You're Riku, too, right?" Sora asked quietly, breaking through the silence. "Your name."

The hands paused. The zombie's breath stuttered a little more. And as Sora watched, the Riku's throat worked as if troubled, before the milky eyes lifted to meet his again.

Sora's breath caught.

If there was remorse in those white eyes before, now there was _agony_.

"... aren't you?" Sora managed, his throat constricting in a strange sympathy.

The zombie's head lowered, shoulders hunching in a wounded posture. "... was..."

_Was? Why wouldn't he still be Riku?_

"... master... took... name... away..."

"He can do that?" Sora asked, incredulous. "But—I mean—even if he could do something like that, you're still Riku, right?"

But even as the words fell from his mouth, he realized what he was saying. His gaze took in the dead lips and jagged teeth and inhuman breathing and those dead yet _alive_ eyes and he couldn't help thinking that maybe Riku losing his name had been a good thing. If he couldn't call himself Riku now, he couldn't compare himself to what he used to be. As sad and crude as that was. Though that meant, without his name, he wasn't anything. Hardly an existence. Just the vampire's servant. Was that another form of control?

Sora wondered which was worse. Having the name, or not?

Yet when he looked at the zombie and remembered the anguish he had seen for that one moment in those eyes, he knew his answer. At least with a name, he could say he was _someone_.

"Is it okay if I call you Riku?"

Agony softened into surprise, given in another of those slow blinks. The zombie nodded just as slowly, shifting the opened shackle in his hands.

"... sorry... have... to..."

"It's okay. I understand." Sora really didn't want the damned thing back on, but he knew there was no other choice. He slid his ankle closer, letting the zombie close and latch it over the wrapping.

"... better...?"

Sora nodded. "It doesn't hurt as much now. Thanks."

For a moment, Sora swore the corner of Riku's mouth quirked up in a little smile.

-o-o-

The briefing room Auron led him to was different from the last. Auron had to use his ID to swipe for clearance before the door opened, and inside, it was spacious, filled with a long, narrow table with a tall device built into the middle that looked like a smaller version of the projectors from before. Smaller monitors were imbedded right into the surface of the table, and they looked like touchscreens. The walls were blank white, curved to form a semi circle, and the ceiling was domed with no light structure. Light came from an arc of spots along the walls, not quite fluorescent but more natural feeling.

As Auron moved into the room, Riku hesitated just inside the threshold with his food, wondering where to sit.

Ansem was already there, his eyes following Auron as the werewolf took a spot at the middle of the long table and set his bowl and plate down. Then those orange eyes flitted to Riku, narrowing at him again as if expectant. Feeling completely out of place, Riku moved away from the door. As he did, he noticed the other people in the room, and he glanced at them as he slowly shuffled to a seat near Auron.

Ansem's adopted son, the cute blond who looked eerily like Sora, was sitting at the very end of the table. He had his chair facing the opposite direction and was sitting on it backwards in a straddle, his elbows resting on the surface of the table. He had a small bowl of skinny noodles in front of him, and Riku watched as the boy used two fingers to pick up a single strand and bring it between his lips.

When he noticed Riku was looking, he smiled faintly and slurped the noodle up.

After lowering his backpack and crossbow to the floor, Riku sank into a seat at the conference table, setting his plate down with a soft clack, and his coffee went next to it. He caught sight of Zell sitting across the table, the blond flashing him a grin and a thumb's up. Riku blinked. What was Zell doing here? Wait, he must be one of the hunters assigned to their team. Just from their brief encounter earlier, Riku somehow felt a little better having Zell's power on their side.

The man sitting next to Zell was new to Riku, though. Though also golden blond like Zell, his hair stuck up and out in points that reminded Riku of Sora, only this man's hair was a bit more vertically inclined. The lower half of his face was shrouded in a tattered, blood red cloth, piercing blue eyes watching the room over the ragged fabric. Those eyes focused on Riku for a moment, and the teenager swore they were glowing from within. Gulping, Riku took in the rest of the silent man, noting that his outfit consisted mainly of heavy dark blue fabric and dark leather, his left hand and lower arm encased in golden clawed armor. Underneath his red mantle, something shifted against his back, and Riku saw a hint of the black skin of _something_ that looked almost like a bat's wing.

Intrigued, Riku would have kept looking for a hint of that appendage again, but Ansem took that moment to cross the room and approach the table. The fifteen minutes must have been up.

"It's time to start," he said calmly as he paused next to the blond boy.

"Hey, Boss?" Zell quipped, knitting his brow up at Ansem. "I gotta ask... what's the kid doing here?"

Ansem frowned. "If you would settle down, Mr. Dincht, I would be able to explain to you why Roxas is here." He waited for Zell to lean back in his seat, thankfully quiet for the moment, before continuing with his attention on Riku, who had begun eating. "I'm aware you've already met Mr. Dincht. You will have two other Hunters accompanying you. The first is Cloud Strife..."

The scary-looking blond nodded once, not making so much as a grunt of acknowledgement. The darkness under his cowl twitched once.

"... and the other is... not here." Ansem's frown deepened, creating small lines between his fine brows. "Where is Sephiroth? Why is he late?"

"He can't be far, his food is here." Zell took a bite of his sandwich before continuing with his mouth full, much to Ansem's silent disapproval. "Sure he'll turn up soon."

"Is he usually late for meetings?" Riku asked, hoping he wasn't insulting anyone.

"He got back late from his last mission and he hadn't fed yet." Cloud's smooth baritone was so soft and so unexpected, it made Riku jump and almost drop his fork. "He'll be here any minute now."

Riku's eyes drifted to the plate sitting at Sephiroth's place, next to Cloud. On it was a thick steak, except this one was more rare than Auron's. A lot more rare. It looked... raw.

"Wh—what is he, anyway...?" Riku whispered. No one answered, either because they hadn't heard him or they didn't want to. "Hey, I asked—"

"We heard you the first time," Auron replied gruffly. "Sephiroth is a dhampir."

"A what?" The term sounded familiar somehow, almost like— "Wait, did you say he was a _vampire_?"

"A dhampir is a halfbreed." Ansem settled smoothly into the seat next to his son. "The offspring of a mortal mother and a vampire father, usually."

"I thought vampires were the enemy!" Riku said, appalled. "A vampire took Sora, remember?!"

"We are aware of the hostage's situation," Ansem replied. He said it in a way that made Riku realize what an ass he was making of himself. "And we do not need a human to remind us what we are after."

"Vampires aren't the enemy," Auron said, giving him a dark look.

Even Zell was staring at him as if something were wrong with him. "They're right," he said, his hands still around his sandwich, "they're not the enemy. Just the ones who break the law. Sephiroth is nooo-where near being like the psycho with the hostage, man."

Riku found himself getting to his feet, his hands on the table as he leaned forward, glaring at the two blonds in front of him before turning to Ansem. "He has a _name_. It's Sora. Not _hostage_." Their nonchalant attitude was really, really bothering him, and add that to the fact that a half-_vampire_ was going to be working with them, the situation just made him really uncomfortable, especially after what Auron had told Riku about those monsters.

That's all they were. Monsters.

"Riku, sit down," Auron said firmly.

Riku didn't. "And does it matter if he's not like the one who took Sora?" he asked in an acidic tone. "Vampires suck _blood_. They hurt people to survive. They're all monsters."

Strife's cold eyes slowly slid towards him and locked with his gaze, and something about the way his brows furrowed in that slight, almost imperceptible way, and his lips pulled into a thin line, made Riku feel completely debased. The hunter didn't even have to say anything. Riku got the message clearly: _What do **you** know, Human?_

His anger fizzled out of him before he knew what was happening. But before he could rethink his words or even consider apologizing for them, a long arm slipped around his waist and pulled him backwards, right up against a solid chest.

A small yelp escaped him at the surprise encounter, but whoever it was who held him didn't let him pull away or turn around, the strong arm only tightening its grip. Riku's breath caught in his throat at the brush of soft lips against his neck, his eyes widening when there was a definite graze of teeth and a hint of warm tongue against his skin, a sensual but cruel tease. He realized his heart was racing when the person behind him finally spoke, the voice deep, honeyed, and dripping amusement.

"Monsters?"

Startled, Riku turned his face, catching sight of silky silver hair and a sultry little smirk, right before his attacker nuzzled into his neck again, over his collar.

"Sephiroth, lay off the boy. He doesn't know better."

Strife. Still impassive. But Riku felt like he had just been saved. Unfortunately, the dhampir wasn't done. He gave a low chuckle and pulled Riku even closer, who let out a small squeak and gave Auron a pleading look to save him.

"Mm, if only I wasn't under contract..." he murmured against Riku's neck, his fingers sliding up the boy's leather-clad thigh. "I'd bite him right here."

Riku's body gave a shudder of both fear and what felt like anticipation, giving into Sephiroth's playful flirting with ease, leaving him voiceless, ashamed and scared shitless, and slightly aroused. That was when Auron finally spoke up, his expression normal, but Riku sensed the warning in his tone.

"You're late."

Riku could practically hear the smugness in Sephiroth's voice. "He's delectable. Is this your new charge, Lykos?"

"It is," Auron replied, curt. _Let him go _and _You're scaring him_ were left unsaid, perhaps because they were obvious. "Let's get to work."

When Sephiroth slowly released him, Riku quickly pulled away and shot him a look that showed he was more embarrassed than he was bothered, and Sephiroth offered an enigmatic smirk in return, his eyes narrowing a fraction as he studied Riku like a hawk would its prey. Riku briefly skimmed over the man's body, taking in his long silver hair and vibrant green eyes and the elegant, sleek black clothes that did nothing to hide his slender but built physique. His pants and boots were nothing special, but his shirt was enough to make Riku's gaze linger.

The collar was large, reminding Riku of an old military style jacket, but the material seemed thinner, the design more modern. The shirt was undone, hanging open halfway down his chest and closing just under his solar plexus with two silver clasps, showing off his well-formed chest and the sharp lines of his clavicles. From Riku's angle, he even saw a hint of nipple beyond the dark, open material. The rest of the shirt hugged his sides, flaring out slightly, revealing a line of skin down his toned abdomen to his pants.

Sephiroth caught his stare now that they were done studying each other, and Riku quickly returned to his seat, avoiding eye contact. He saw Strife fire a warning glare at Sephiroth as the dhampir settled into his own seat, but Riku noticed there was a lot less ice in that look than the one the blond had turned on him earlier. Sephiroth answered Cloud with a smirk, almost primly tucking into the bloody steak on his plate. Riku expected it to moo when the tall man stabbed it with his fork.

"If you are done now," Ansem stated calmly, though his tone was chilly. He moved to the center of the table where the projector was. "It has taken us years, but we've managed to piece together a holographic layout of Sorah's lair."

He keyed in a few commands, and a ghostly representation of the first floor of a sprawling building spread out over most of the table. Deciding that now was a safe time, Riku began to continue his meal, finding himself much hungrier than he had realized. He kept his attention on Ansem, though, not wanting to miss anything important, not taking time to savor the food even though it was to die for. All the while, he could feel Sephiroth watching him.

"This is Cerise Noir's main entrance, as well as the bar area and dance floor," Ansem explained, and each time he waved his hand, the area in the hologram indicated by him changed from a turquoise outline to a red, signifying what was where. "It's always crowded, a mixture of supernaturals and their unsuspecting human prey. Very rarely do humans notice when one of their own falls victim to a vampire or other species here." Ansem went on to gesture, Riku's eyes following the man's slender hand. "Hunters Dincht, Strife, and Sephiroth will place themselves here." The turquoise bled to red again. "Dincht, you will be on lookout, and assist Strife and Sephiroth in securing the main area without arousing suspicion. Your job is to notify Lykos when the vampire leaves the club to hunt."

The hologram lowered slightly, a second floor stacking on top of it as Ansem continued. "The next floor up contains private rooms. The staircase leading up to the third floor storage is guarded by a bouncer who also supervises those rooms. The third floor storage area is where Lykos and his charge will be going. You two will enter through the back door. There's a security lock on that door, but we have the code for it. Your job is to make your way to the third floor without being seen. In the back of the storage area, there is a set of fire stairs that have been modified to bypass all external exits and go straight into the basement. That is where Sora is being kept." The slight stress on that word made Riku sink into his seat a little; he knew Ansem was watching him even without looking away from the hologram. "Once you retrieve him, you are to get him to an outside team who will be waiting by the rear door. If no alert has been raised by then, the other half of your mission is to assist the rest of your team in ambushing the vampire when he returns to the club."

Riku hesitantly raised his hand to shoulder height, afraid that the others might laugh at him for acting like he was in school. "Sir? If I can ask a question... how do you know this layout is accurate? I mean, if we go inside and things aren't what we expect, it could get us all killed." So what if he was an ass for questioning the experts? He wasn't about to risk his life on bad information.

However, Ansem didn't even look fazed at Riku's uncertainty. He nodded toward his son, who punctuated the sudden silence with the slurp of another noodle.

"Roxas spent some time as Sorah's prisoner, until I rescued him. He knows the layout of Cerise Noir better than anyone else here."

Zell choked on a bite of his sandwich, quickly forcing it down with half of his drink. The stare he focused on Roxas... he looked like he was about to fall out of his seat in shock and admiration. To encounter Sorah and live to tell about it was nothing short of a miracle, with or without help...!

Riku dropped his fork, a swell of hope squeezing his chest tightly. "Then it's not impossible to save somebody from Sorah...!" He leaned toward Ansem like a dog straining at the leash. "If you did it once, you can do it again! You can rescue Sora!"

"Riku..." Auron began, a soft but clear note of warning in his voice.

One slow shake of Ansem's head promptly squashed Riku's hopes. "My time as a Hunter is long done, child." Ansem hesitated for a moment, oddly disconcerting for Riku even though he barely knew the man. "In saving Roxas, I myself was gravely injured. The abilities that were paramount to my status as a Hunter are sadly out of reach now. But I consider the sacrifice to be a very worthy one."

For a moment, Ansem and his son glanced at each other, and Riku's throat tightened at the brief spark of affection he saw there.

Just how much would he give of himself to save Sora?

"You might be human, Riku, but you have more power than you give yourself credit for."

The unfamiliar voice made Riku look up, startled, only to find Roxas looking right at him. The blond smiled at Riku's shocked expression, and Riku was painfully reminded of Sora's own happy but worn smiles. Just how much had the blond teenager suffered at Sorah's hands?

"Everyone here has talents of their own. Racial or personal, it doesn't matter. But what's important is that you love Sora, right?" Roxas picked up a noodle, letting it dangle from his fingers. "If you love him, you'll find a way. That's why, even though I'm not a Hunter, I want to help you in any way I can. Because somebody loved me enough to want to save me." With that, he slurped up his noodle, turning his attention back to his half-filled bowl.

Riku couldn't keep a tiny smile from creeping onto his face, but it faded when Sephiroth spoke.

"And just how do we know we can trust Roxas's memories? Sorah is a skilled manipulator of both mind and body... what's to say he didn't simply let Ansem take Roxas away with a skull full of false information in an effort to trap us?"

Riku couldn't believe the balls on this guy! Elite Hunter or not, to question his boss like this... and over Ansem's beloved _son_ on top of it all...! Even Zell seemed somewhat surprised at Sephiroth's question, though Strife and Auron were both watching Ansem expectantly. Despite the attention, Ansem coolly handled their doubts.

"From what surveillance and infiltration we have managed to accomplish over the years, and from what I myself remember, Roxas's account of the layout is precise," he said as he gestured to the simulated tour, which had begun to rotate slowly on an invisible axis, showing off all angles of the layout to the people seated around the table. When no one challenged this, he flitted his gaze over their attentive faces. "Any more questions before we continue?"

Riku hesitantly raised his hand again, feeling ridiculous as everyone stared at him.

"Yes?" Ansem drawled. Though he sounded patient, Riku had a feeling that the man was getting tired of his human ignorance.

"If this place is a club," Riku asked as he nodded towards the hologram, "won't we need to dress the part?"

"Absolutely," Ansem replied, "but you already fit into the crowd with that."

Glancing down at his skin-tight outfit, Riku couldn't help thinking about leather fetishwear and that he'd stand out in the crowd anyway. He decided not to protest, not wanting the others to think of him even more as a burden.

"I have a question," Strife cut in quietly. This time Riku wasn't as surprised when he spoke up, but his voice still struck him with the way it was firm but still soft in a sleepy, sensuous way. His cold blue eyes stared up at Ansem from under his bangs, his mouth barely visible above his red cowl. "These bouncers you mentioned. What race are they?"

"Possibly renfields," Ansem answered, and before Riku could even wonder what _that _meant, Ansem leveled his gaze back on him, especially him, to clarify, "human slaves who are completely devoted to the vampire in hopes they'll be turned for their loyal service."

Riku wasn't sure whether or not to be grateful for the explanation or insulted that Ansem had done that. "If they're just human, then what's there to worry about?" he wondered aloud.

"They will be on the lookout," Auron said. His voice was thick, and Riku noticed that he had his flask out. "Plus, there are others inside the club who may or may not target you for just being human. You remember the table of incubi in the cafeteria."

That he did. Embarrassed that it had been brought up in front of everyone, he glanced around, but most of them still seemed impassive. Strife, however, shifted his dark wing on reflex, as if pinpointed by that statement.

Next to the mysterious hunter, Sephiroth spoke up without looking away from his now almost done steak. "Incubi, yes. They have cunning means of seduction and would be attracted to such an atmosphere for fresh prey."

Strife added smoothly without missing a beat, "And other races will have less honest ways of charming you into their beds." Here he paused, his gaze sliding in Sephiroth's direction as if it had been a direct jab.

"What other ways?" Riku asked.

Sephiroth's eyes shifted, focusing on Riku, intense green studying him. "Glamour," he said pointedly, and then returned Strife's glance. "Something that even the most skilled hunters cannot resist."

Though he himself didn't move, Strife's wing twitched again, the material of his cowl fluttering around it. Riku frowned, glancing from Strife to Sephiroth, sensing underlying tension behind their statements. Were they _teasing_ each other? Riku wondered at their relationship.

"If this is something even experienced hunters fall prey to..." he asked, "just what chance do I have?"

Ansem raised a brow at Riku's mumbled question. Sephiroth rested his elbows on the table, lacing his fingers together and leaning toward Riku over them. Strife noticed the gesture and snorted, folding his arms and turning his face away from the dhampir.

"The kid has a point," Auron rumbled, ignoring the dirty look Riku shot him for the label. "Sephiroth, you're the only one here equipped to train him in resistance. You might be descended from a different species of vampire than Sorah, but your glamour works much the same way."

"Whoa, whoa!" Riku held up both hands. "You want him to glamour me?"

"Why not? He's the only one here at the moment who can," Ansem replied coolly.

"He tried to bite me!"

Sephiroth smirked. "Then try not to be so tempting."

"Forget it! I'll take my chances with the freaking vampire!" Riku leaned back in his seat, afraid to be that close to the dhampir, even with the conference table between them.

"You brought up a valid point, and now I'm afraid you'll have to see it through." Ansem nodded at Sephiroth, who rose from his seat and started around the table toward Riku. "You can't be a liability to this team, boy. You will go with Sephiroth and train as best you can before the start of the mission, or you won't go at all."

"B—But that's not... hey, let me go!" Riku's protest turned slightly shrill as a strong hand jerked him out of his seat.

"Don't worry, kid. I'll be gentle."

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Riku struggled, ashamedly aware of how childish he was acting, but this guy was just scary! "Zell, help!"

The blond fighter shrugged, offering a sympathetic look as Sephiroth hauled Riku out of the room. "Just watch your neck!"

"THAT'S NOT FUNNY!"

-o-o-

After the shackle had been replaced, the zombie lingered in the room as Sora slowly picked at the food that had been given to him on the tray. It was only rice and meat, already cut up, and the only utensil was a spoon. Though Sora wondered what kind of damage he could have done with a fork or knife, the fact that they had taken precautions with even _that_ told him once again that they were well prepared to keep him here, that they were anticipating his every move.

As he ate, he tried not to let his gaze stray too often to the zombie, who had taken to huddling on the floor in the shadows, which was an improvement from his usual position behind the heavy draperies.

If not for the hunger gnawing at the pit of his stomach, tempered only by queasy fear, Sora wouldn't be able to eat at all. As it was, he got down only a few spoonfuls before he stopped, hoping his stomach wouldn't rebel.

"... must... eat..."

Sora picked up the spoon again, but didn't move to scoop up another bite. "I don't have much of an appetite. Did you expect me to?" He did pick up the cup of water, sipping at it. Losing so much blood had really dehydrated him.

"... master... wants... strong..." The zombie reached out a bony-fingered hand. "... need... help...?"

"Riku" wanted to feed him? The idea of it unsettled Sora; he felt like he was being fattened like cattle. He shook his head. "Thanks, but I can do it myself." He forced himself to take a few more bites.

Riku continued to watch him as he at least polished off the rice and left half of the meat there. He couldn't eat any more. Leaving the plate at the side of the bed, Sora cradled his cup of water as the zombie approached him to take away the rest of his unwanted food. For a monster, his movements were always so careful, Sora noticed. He seemed so attentive to every detail, it was almost eerie.

There had to be something there. For a zombie, anyway. No brainless thing could be doing all this for him. And if he wasn't so brainless, then he had to know more about this place, about Sora's situation, and about his captor.

"Thanks..." Sora murmured after a moment, his voice soft as it broke through the silence.

Pausing in mid-rise, the zombie tilted his head and blinked at Sora owlishly.

"For being so nice," Sora clarified, lowering his gaze down to his cup. The water was getting warm. Fingers tracing the rim, he bit his lip, trying to find the words to say this right. "You could be violent and sadistic like that vampire, but you're not."

The zombie blinked again, looking like he was thinking about something. For a long time, he said nothing, quietly observing Sora. Sora drank down the rest of the water, his heart squeezing painfully as he wondered if he was wrong about the zombie-Riku's intelligence. If he really was mindless, Sora would get nothing from him...

But then, the soft rasp of a voice returned. "... master... only... know... anger..."

So maybe Riku really did have human intelligence, if it could make a judgment like that. Sora nodded, somewhat relieved, and stared down at his cup, watching a droplet of water slide down the side of the plastic.

"You know a lot about him, I guess..."

There was a wheezy intake of breath, but the zombie was otherwise silent again. Sora glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, noticing how he was being studied by the poor creature as if _he_ was the one to be pitied. Curious, Sora lifted his face to meet his gaze fully.

"Don't you?" he asked. "If he's your master."

"... master... not... tell... anything..."

Riku turned away, his face still that near-expressionless mask, and yet Sora knew he wasn't being entirely truthful. He inched closer, leaning toward the creature with a hesitant smile that was almost impossible to keep in place.

"But you're always around him. You must've noticed things about him... what he's like when he's not, you know, playing with his food." God, that was hard to say. All this time, he'd been trying to convince himself he was something other than food, and though he'd been failing miserably, saying it out loud made him really understand it was even worse.

The zombie didn't move, didn't even reply for several moments. When the words came, they were almost a whisper. "... master... hurt... if... angry... hit... lots..."

"He hits you? But you don't feel pain, do you?" Sora swallowed as no response came, a sick dread rolling over in his gut. "Do you...?"

"... not... matter... hits... anyway... even... if... not... fault..." The words came slower this time, more forced, and Sora couldn't tell if it was from the effort of speaking so many words at a time, or if it was something more. "... not... try... escape... master... kill... if... try..."

"Do you mean me, or you?"

Riku shook his head. "... already... dead..."

So then he meant Sora. Sora would die if he tried to escape. And if the zombie had been able to anticipate what Sora had been trying to do, he wasn't brain-dumb at all. That meant that even if Sora did come up with an escape plan, he couldn't count on outsmarting the zombie guard dog.

But from the sound of it, _he_ was a captive, too. Though it might have been a strange thing to find comfort in, Sora suddenly felt so much less alone. The zombie knew his situation well, and Sora saw his own possible future in him. He could wind up like this Riku, slave to the crazy vampire, beaten for no reason, and worse. The only difference was that Sora was still alive and had some semblance of free will, but probably not for long.

"You and me," he said quietly, looking down at his empty plastic cup, "we're not all that different, are we? Pretty soon, he'll take my name too."

Riku said nothing to that, but Sora didn't miss the way he suddenly stiffened for just a moment. He opened his mouth to ask what was bothering the zombie, when he got his answer. His skin prickled icily right as the door swung open and the vampire breezed in.

"I wouldn't even bother," the other Sora chuckled when he saw his prey ready to speak. "It doesn't understand. It can't even talk."

Sora snapped his mouth shut, recoiling away as the his twin approached. A soft whimper escaped him when he felt those cold fingers stroke through his hair. The vampire petted him for a few moments, grinning in a way that could be fond if not for the sick glee in his eyes.

"Did you have enough to eat? You need to keep your strength up, of course. It wouldn't do to have you die of malnutrition, now would it?"

Sora's lip quivered, his head leaning further away from the vampire, tears welling in his eyes as those cold, clawed fingers cupped the back of his skull, pulling him into kissing range. The other Sora smiled, nuzzling the human's cheek in a way that was almost affectionate.

"P—please... let me go," Sora begged, though he knew it was futile.

The vampire leaned back enough to lock his eyes with Sora's, filling the teen's vision with bright, icy blue that seemed to swell, washing through his brain like a wave of soothing water. Some of the tension melted from Sora's limbs, the fearful tightness in his chest easing.

Until the blood crashed down through his memories and left him screaming with a voice no one but him could hear.

**-blood cold icy fear PAIN jagged burning makeitstop-**

_his soul bled out his eyes and from his screaming mouth, his forgotten body twitching in the vampire's grip as if shocked. Those blue eyes stared unblinking into his own, and still all Sora could see was_

**-wontsharewonthelp mommawhy ithurtsineedit justalittlepleaseill bequiet-**

_her face filling his vision, angry and snarling. Her bony hand held him down, her thin, trackmarked arm swept down and across_

**-blazingfire throat riversofhotliquidlife whycantibreathe mommawhy-**

_and he choked on a breath he couldn't draw, hot fluid bubbles bursting on his lips, painting his face and splattering his vision red on red until she threw him into the gutter, into the rain, one eye blinded with muddy water and the other watching his life flow away into the drain_

**-ungratefulshit iwontshare neverwantedneverlovedjustDIE-**

_until someone picked him up, picked him out of the gutter, naked and docile and lost, one moment of warmth until he felt how cold his savior was and then life wasn't draining out, it was being PULLED, sucked away greedily as the aching abused void between his thighs was invaded at the same moment, a stranger taking the last thing he had_

**-nowon'tletyou itsnot fair why stop stop stop NO-**

_so he screamed and bit down on the throat so close to his, an ouroboros embrace with one feeding on the other, and tasted the surprised laughter in the bitterness exploding over his tongue_

**-wontdie wontdie takeit takeitall iwanttoLIVE-**

_but there was no life in this body, the stranger had none and took all he had, to leave him the same nothing to pass to another and another and another..._

Sora found himself yanked out of the bloody agony, his brain feeling rubbed raw until the backs of his eyes began to throb in pain. He fell out of the blue emptiness of his twin's eyes, sagging backward over the arm supporting him, one hand clawing blindly at his own throat. There was no gaping wound under his fingertips, only the raw, closed-over punctures that the vampire kept abusing.

The vampire chuckled breathlessly, like a lover sharing a playful tease after a romantic tussle. One arm still supported Sora, the other hand resuming its gentle stroking through the human's hair. Sora's body twitched with a soft moan, and the vampire's smile only widened.

"You and I share more than a face. We share the same drive to exist. I keep hurting you, and you keep fighting, don't you? But everyone in this life has hurt you in some way, little one. No one is innocent of that." That cold hand drifted down from Sora's hair to stroke his cheek lovingly. "No one at all... not even your precious Riku..."

_Riku..._

A shock of actual physical suffering shot through Sora the moment his boyfriend's face entered his thoughts. He bit down on a sobbing cry, the memory crushed down by a pounding headache with all the intensity of a cheese grater scraped across the surface of his brain. Blood roared through his ears, not quite drowning out the vampire's soft laugh.

"Your memories are so sweet, little Sora. I couldn't help myself... I wanted to taste them on my tongue, feel them curdle in my belly. You feed me so perfectly, as if you were made only for me." As he spoke, he tipped Sora back, cradling the broken boy in the cool, soft sheets. "It's such a shame, though... mortals don't last forever. Your body will surrender, your willpower crumbled to nothing... and then I'll make sure you never have to fight again."

Sora heard the soft rustle of cloth hitting the floor, felt himself wrapped in cold arms, felt the slight weight of an icy, familiar body pressing him down, and he knew that there was no escape, not this night.

He wept, and even his own tears felt cold against his face.

The vampire's lips nearly rested against his ear, dark hair brushing Sora's cheek, softness curtaining away half his vision.

"I am you, you are me. We complete each other, little Sora. I want you to breathe my name, while you still have breath to speak it..."

Cold and cruel, sparking hot agony without mercy through his throat, the fangs slid into his flesh as if they belonged there. The first pull at his life melted the world away, eroded his will, mingled pleasure with fear in a dark whirlpool that frightened him more than sheer terror ever could. It drew him down into a place where the slow pressure of invading sex made him feel warm, made his hips surge closer in desire even as he screamed internally for it to stop.

_Sorah..._

Darkness closed over his awareness, and he was swallowed whole.

-o-o-

Sephiroth's knee barely touched Riku's as they sat side by side on the couch, half turned to face each other. The small break room only had space for the tiny sofa, a small end table with a few scattered magazines, and a lamp. Riku was almost afraid to breathe, feeling like the off-white walls were closing in on him.

His eyes met the dhampir's, an almost sly smile touching the older man's lips, and Riku's throat tightened. Was he being glamoured already?

"No," Sephiroth chuckled, as if reading Riku's thoughts. "You get a warning the first time."

Knowing he was being teased, he tried to close off his expression as he defiantly kept Sephiroth's gaze. Heat trickled into his cheeks, though, as he remembered how his body had reacted earlier to Sephiroth's touches, but that hadn't been glamour then either, had it? If he was being so susceptible to Sephiroth's allure now, he wasn't sure how he was going to resist whatever his glamour was like.

"This is actually standard Hunter training, at least for the races that are susceptible to glamour," Sephiroth explained. "Normally, you'd practice this for weeks, if not months. But since we're short on time... are you ready?"

Riku nodded slowly, not daring to blink at first for fear he'd miss something important. Only when his eyes began to dry out did he try, but it wasn't the quick flicker he was used to. His lashes came down slow, sleepy, the warmth of his cheeks seeming to spread along his neck and into his limbs to weigh them down. He couldn't break Sephiroth's gaze, those turquoise-green pools swallowing him, freezing his thoughts until all he knew was the strange pins-and-needles sensation creeping through his brain. His head tilted back slightly, his breath coming in soft pants, unable to move, unwilling to defend himself from the power of those oceanic eyes.

Even when Sephiroth suddenly began to lean closer, those pale lips inching toward Riku's vulnerable throat... even after the gaze was broken and the shiver lingered in his head... Riku was completely helpless. He didn't even mind Sephiroth's closeness as he felt warm breath against his jaw and slender fingers curl against his hip.

_You're completely open._ The words slid through his mind, a caress of silk that sent a shiver down his spine. _Fight me off._ The idea seemed contradictory—it came in a suggestive mind-purr, yet it was telling him not to surrender to it.

Fight? But how?

The attack seemed to be in the wispy, warm pleasure seeping through his body, turning him to liquid willingness. It would be so easy to just give in to it, let consciousness melt away. He wanted to know what those gleaming fangs would feel like, sinking into his flesh. Would it be how Sora had felt the first time they had made love, one into the other until it was impossible to tell where he ended and Sora _(Sephiroth)_ began?

Sephiroth's presence rested in his mind like a solid thing, coiling around him, holding him captive. Riku groaned, pushing at the shimmering heat nesting in his skull, but there was no force in the effort. It pushed back, harder, and Riku tumbled away into oblivion.

When his mind finally cleared, it was like waking from a dream. His eyes drifted open, his consciousness stirring back to life, and he blinked a few times up at a cascade of silver hair in front of his face. He wasn't sure when it had happened, but he was now lying on his back on the couch and Sephiroth was straddling him, his fangs extended and pressed lightly against Riku's neck, leaving small dents he could feel. His heart jerked to life and began to race, his mind now panicking as he realized what position he was in.

Sephiroth slowly pulled back, murmuring, "You're dead."

The statement drove Riku's body back into action. Drawing in a sharp breath, he abruptly tried to sit up and push Sephiroth away from him, but the dhampir's body was a steel wall, unyielding and firm.

"Do you think you'll be able to just push Sorah away once he's got you?" Sephiroth watched Riku struggle, grunting softly as he fought to get free, but there was no smile on the older man's face anymore. "Do you think you'll even come out of the trance at all?"

"I know, I know! Now get off me!"

The blush was working its way down Riku's neck, now more angry than lustful or embarrassed. The moment Sephiroth released him, the teen shot off the couch and pressed against the wall, watching the dhampir with wide, wary eyes. Sephiroth's movements were slow and fluid as he rose to his feet and began to approach the boy again, who stiffened as he neared.

But Riku's defiance didn't last long again, his apprehension melting away as Sephiroth's gaze leveled on his, that luminescent green fixating him and swallowing his consciousness. He relaxed against the wall as Sephiroth closed the distance between them, his body pressing right up against Riku's, a hand fanning out against the wall beside Riku's head.

As the boy breathed in, a dark, enticing whisper passed through his mind like a caress, wordless but full of siren promises, dangerous and tempting. Sephiroth's proximity was intoxicating, dizzying him and filling him with warmth he couldn't resist—did he even want to? Sephiroth's lips were there before him, quirked into a subtle smirk that sent a pleasant shiver down his spine. It was alluring, almost taunting, challenging him to make a move.

Unthinkingly, Riku reached out and twisted his fingers around a lock of Sephiroth's silver hair, tugging, and another whisper moved through his mind, praising him, encouraging him, and he tugged a little harder, drawing Sephiroth's face closer.

The dhampir dipped his head lower, gaze breaking from Riku's as his lips found vulnerable skin. Riku dimly heard something heavy hit the floor at his feet, wet silky flesh grazing his neck back and forth, teasing. Riku's lashes flickered, a groan lodging in his chest, breaking free as sweet sinful fire stabbed through his throat. He should've choked, screamed in pain, but all he could do was moan, sagging into arms that lowered him to the floor, and the fire was gone as swiftly as it came.

There was no telling how long had passed by the time he dragged himself out of his daze. He was sitting on the floor, Sephiroth crouched in front of him, elbows resting on his thighs, watching silently. Riku swallowed, feeling an odd sting in his neck. He reached up, touching the spot... and his fingertips came away dotted with blood.

Fear, stark and cold, ran through him, his stomach twisting as he stared at the red staining his fingertips. From there, he glanced down to find his gold collar undone at his feet. Sephiroth had removed it without him noticing. Disturbed, Riku narrowed his eyes up at the dhampir, meaning to sound angry, but his voice came out shakily instead. "W-What did you do to..."

"Feeding rush," Sephiroth said smoothly, picking up the collar. "Nowhere near as pleasurable as a full vampire's real bite, but still stimulating enough to get an erotic little sound out of you. To think, I only nipped you."

Blush deepening, Riku swallowed against his dry throat and snatched the collar away from Sephiroth. Before putting it back on, he wiped his neck of the blood, muttering, "I thought gold was supposed to be poisonous."

"Not to my kind," Sephiroth said, again expressionless. "You're not fighting enough. If Sorah doesn't even have to touch the gold to take this off, you're in trouble. The problem is that you have something of a hedonistic streak. The search for pleasure drives you, I can taste it in your blood."

"Give me a break, this is the first time I've ever been hypnotized or glamoured or whatever!" Riku was fighting mad now, humiliated that his control was really that weak and that Sephiroth knew it. It was as bad as the idea of Sorah and his pet revenant watching Riku and Sora have sex.

"You still don't get it, do you?" Sephiroth scowled, his handsome features darkening with irritation. "You only get one chance. If Sorah glamours you and you don't resist, you're worse than dead. Of course, it might just be easier to let him turn you. Then the two of you can be Sorah's little sex slaves for eternity."

That made Riku see red. With a snarl, he swung at Sephiroth, though he barely had any room to cock back with the way he was sitting against the wall. Sephiroth caught his fist easily, his grip gentle but firm, holding Riku's hand immobile.

"Fuck you!" The words ground between Riku's clenched teeth, though they did nothing to make him feel like he was right or strong. He wanted to cry.

Sephiroth was right. His whole life had focused only on pleasure, and now when he needed to be strong, to suffer and struggle for what was really important, he couldn't do it.

But he still had to try.

As if sensing Riku's thoughts, Sephiroth's smirk returned. "That's better," he said in a low tone, rolling the syllables on his tongue as if they were to be savored. "Anger and desperation are better than nothing, which was what you had before." He slipped his fingers under Riku's, uncurling his fist and lacing their hands together as he leaned close, his words precise. "Use them."

The touch, oddly intimate as it was, only further fueled Riku's anger. It should've been Sora clutching his hand, Sora leaning close as if wanting a kiss. He took that rage, that simmering fear at what his helpless boyfriend must be going through, and shoved it into the forefront of his thoughts.

This time, he felt Sephiroth dive into his head. The dhampir grinned appreciatively at the resonating sensation of hitting that mental wall. Riku managed to grin back, though it was more a grimace from the force of his effort. A trickle of sweat rolled down the side of his face, but he held firm.

Long, strong fingers glided up the inside of his thigh, squeezing methodically, kneading muscle toned by years of sports.

Riku's eyes widened, thrown off his guard by such a blatant advance. Sephiroth's hand slid up his thigh, fingertips digging briefly into Riku's hip and kneading in slow circles. The teenager could feel himself starting to really sweat, though the pressure of Sephiroth's thoughts were still almost casual. Riku swallowed, forcing himself to maintain eye contact, feeling the grip on his hand shifting, turning his arm over to expose the dark vein throbbing in his wrist.

His lower body was abruptly yanked against the dhampir's, the fangs sinking into his wrist and the full force of Sephiroth's mind stabbing against Riku's walls. Riku was gone in an instant, his own cry ringing muffled and lustful in his ears.

Heat seared through him, igniting his nerves, satisfying shivers running up his arm and sending pleasure dancing down his spine. Sephiroth soon no longer had to hold his wrist captive, Riku finding himself voluntarily holding it up for Sephiroth's indulgence. Hands free, Sephiroth slowly, sensually drank from Riku's wrist, who felt a gasp escape him at the fluttery, elated sensations it invoked. Sephiroth's palms cupped his hips and firmly held him close as he pressed forward, Riku's back straightening against the wall as the remaining space between them disappeared. Sephiroth's knee slid between his to keep his legs spread as his hand skimmed down, finding the inside of his thigh again, a teasing pressure that Riku found himself arching his hips toward, a low, frustrated groan resounding in his throat.

A part of himself recognized that sound—sometimes Sora would tease him like this, often when he was especially desperate for his affection, and he would let Sora know just how much it annoyed and aroused him. Like this.

But this wasn't Sora, his mind suddenly reminded him, throwing him back into the present.

"S-Stop..." Riku grit out, shaking sickly as the reality of his failure came crashing down. Mercifully, Sephiroth obeyed, a slow swipe of his tongue clearing the remaining blood from the holes in Riku's wrist. Through the haze blurring his vision, Riku could see the sad disappointment in the man's face.

"I know how unfair it must seem, Riku," he said gently, backing up enough to let the boy start composing himself. "The Hunters who require this training take a very long time to build up enough immunity to glamour to be truly effective at it. You're not going to get that time, so we have to do what we can. At the very least, you can recognize the sensation of glamour and try to fight it off."

So in other words, Riku had a start, but it wouldn't be enough to save him? Lovely.

Gathering his scattered thoughts, Riku curled his arms around himself and swallowed against his hoarse throat, nodding to Sephiroth's credit. He was still trembling slightly, his nerves on edge and his body left brimming with want.

"I-I need to go to the bathroom," Riku said in a rushed half-demand. He wasn't going to let Sephiroth stop him.

Thankfully, he didn't need to. The dhampir's eyes met his, his seriousness fading into something laughing, though his lips didn't change from their frown. He gave a simple nod and pulled away, rising to his feet, completely composed and unruffled.

Riku wasn't nearly as graceful. He used the wall to hold his weight and then stumbled slightly as he made a beeline to the door, not looking back.

He needed to breathe.

As he staggered into the hallway, his whole world spun around him, everything becoming a blur of egg white and metallic black. The door hissed closed behind him, but Sephiroth's presence lingered. Riku could still feel his touches, fingerprints branded into his thigh, palms enveloping his hips, lips pressed to his wrist, breath ghosting against his neck. He knew what he must have looked like standing there in the colorless corridor, his flushed cheeks and wild green eyes exhibiting arousal.

God, his pulse felt like it'd never stop racing. Placing a hand over his heart, he took a steadying breath, trying to calm his nerves. Only then did he realize that he had no idea where a bathroom was in the first place.

He explored the long, curving hallway, avoiding eye contact with anyone he passed, aware of the affects of glamour now. The last thing he wanted was for another incubus or something to catch him under a spell. He made sure to memorize his steps so he wouldn't get lost on his way back to that secluded little room where Sephiroth was waiting for his return.

Shivering, he tried to ignore the way his body reacted to the thought, heat coursing through him, torturing. He had to stop thinking about it.

Passing two tall, fuzzy beings—not unlike Chewbacca, he thought, or Bigfoots/feet—he found a glowing blue sign that could have been a symbol for a toilet. He decided to risk it. He turned the corner into the narrower corridor, passing through another automatic door.

The smell of sterility, sweet soap, and an underlying, unpleasant musky odor made him wrinkle his nose. He'd found the place, alright. It wasn't that different from regular bathrooms at a mall or restaurant. A row of sinks and mirrors lined one wall, polished to a pristine shine, and the other wall was filled with doorways with little blue signs above them that seemed to indicate what species should go where and use what. A symbol of a humanoid told Riku where to go, but as he passed the other doorways, he saw a variety of different stalls and toilets, some normal looking, others designed bigger, smaller, more open, more rounded, some just plain weird. A few were occupied, and Riku avoided looking for too long.

The humanoid bathroom was familiar enough that it did relax him. He relieved himself and returned to the main area of the bathroom, feeling a little better already. He wasn't looking forward to going back to Sephiroth, fearing that next time he might have to go to the bathroom for a different _kind _of release if Sephiroth continued. But just getting away from him, away from Auron and the others, had lifted some of the pressure.

He approached one of the clean sinks and washed his hands, smiling softly at the runny pink soap provided for him. It was like some things were universal. Glancing into the mirror, though, he saw how shitty he really looked. To anyone who didn't know him, maybe he looked fine, but he saw the feverish blush on his cheeks and the paleness of the rest of him, of the shadows under his eyes, the dryness of his lips. His hair was a mess, too, the thing he always spent an hour perfecting before going out into public. Sora always teased him about his hair fetish. Now it all seemed so trivial.

Some ends of his hair were sticky with liquid red where they must have brushed his neck after Sephiroth's feeding. He took off his collar and set it aside. Tilting his face, he inspected his neck, touching the sore spots, blood still coming away. Shuddering, he triggered the faucet back on and washed his neck and wrist thoroughly before splashing water on his face to wake himself up.

Running damp hands through his hair, he looked at his reflection again, his wet eyelashes and lingering blush making his face seem more feminine. The coolness of the water was somewhat refreshing, but it couldn't wash away his worries.

The automatic faucet shut off, filling the bathroom with silence, as he continued to stare at his dripping reflection. He'd probably wasted too much time in here. He had to get back. After drying himself, he grabbed his collar and put it back on, zipping up the neck of his top for good measure. Turning away from the mirror, he left and retraced his steps back to Sephiroth's temptation.

The dhampir was lounging on the couch, idly flipping through the magazine that had been on the small table. He didn't even look up when Riku entered the room, the hissing automatic door announcing his presence. A silent moment passed, and Riku shifted his weight, apprehensive about being in the man's presence again, wondering what was coming next.

When Sephiroth did nothing, Riku caved into the tension and crossed the room to the couch and sank onto the cushions next to him, sitting stiffly, glancing at him expectantly.

Their green eyes finally met, Sephiroth peering over the edge of the magazine. "Lykos came by," he announced, calmly closing it. "Ansem has scheduled our mission early tomorrow morning, which will be night on the target's world. Both of them want you to get some rest before then."

Lykos. Sephiroth had called Auron that earlier. He wondered if it was some sort of special name for the werewolf.

Riku relaxed into the couch, sighing, feeling a deep ache settling in his limbs. Despite his exhaustion, however, he had an underlying problem that he didn't want to admit to Sephiroth of all people.

He was scared to sleep. How could he, after the day he'd had? His mind could hardly stop spinning enough for him to remember that, oh yeah, somewhere in another world in another life, he had a test coming up and had made plans with his friends for that weekend. A Cleaner, maybe Axel, was probably working on erasing his own past, like they were going to with Sora's.

Sephiroth must have seen the look on his face. "Do you think you will be able to sleep?" he asked. Even though he still seemed impassive towards Riku's situation and his voice held no concern, Riku found Sephiroth's question almost benevolent.

Riku hesitated, feeling his stomach churn. He hadn't finished his meal, either. Slowly, he shook his head. "I probably won't," he muttered.

Though they were sitting so close, he didn't expect to feel Sephiroth's hand skim up his thigh again, automatically making him tense and shoot the man an alarmed look. But this time when their eyes met, Sephiroth didn't look threatening, not a hint there of the predator from earlier.

A sudden tranquility washed through his muddled mind as he stared at Sephiroth, dazed. The shine of the dhampir's gaze blurred before him as his weighed eyelids began to sink closed, but the green had seared into his mind's eye, and it unfurled, blossoming into a velveteen meadow that swathed him with warmth and comfort.

Then the stillness came, and Riku slept.

* * *

_to be continued..._


End file.
